Occupied El Aaiun, 9 July 2025 (SPS) - Moroccan occupying authorities expelled two journalists and a Spanish human rights activist on Tuesday who were on a mission to investigate the situation in Western Sahara.
The individuals involved are journalist Leonor Suarez, Oscar Allende, director of the website "El Faradio," and Raul Conde, a member of the NGO "Cantabria for Western Sahara." They were arrested after being stopped at a police checkpoint in occupied El Aaiun, according to Sahrawi and Spanish sources.
The occupying authorities expelled them without providing an official justification and forced them to leave the area in their car, accompanied by four vehicles from the Moroccan secret police, heading to the city of Agadir in Morocco, the same sources added.
For its part, "El Independiente Equipe Media," a platform for Sahrawi journalists attempting to break the media blackout in occupied Western Sahara, emphasized that "the three Spaniards were intercepted and detained at a checkpoint in the occupied city of El Aaiun, where they had traveled from Agadir to inquire about the situation of the Sahrawi people," noting that they were working in coordination with journalists from the Sahrawi agency "Equipe Media."
The two expelled journalists and the human rights activist condemned the act as "illegal, demonstrating Morocco's ongoing repression against press freedom and human rights defenders in the occupied territories."
It is worth noting that no fewer than 330 journalists, observers, and activists have been expelled from Western Sahara by Moroccan occupying authorities in recent years.
