Algerian president visits Brahim Ghali in hospital

The leader of a movement seeking independence from Morocco who is at the center of a diplomatic row flew out of Spain to Algeria, arriving in the middle of the night before being taken to an Algerian military hospital on Wednesday.

Brahim Ghali received a visit from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and army chief of staff Said Chengriha, at Ain Naadja military hospital.

Footage filmed by the Algerian presidency showed Ghali hooked up to an oxygen machine during the visit.

Ghali was released from a hospital in northern Spain following more than six weeks of treatment after contracting COVID-19, according to a statement sent to The Associated Press by the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which is based in refugee camps in western Algeria.

Morocco has denounced Spain, a strategic partner, for allowing Ghali to secretly enter the country.

Morocco considers Ghali, 71, to be a terrorist.

Amid the dispute, thousands of migrants crossed the border from Morocco into Spain as Moroccan authorities appeared to relax border controls last month.

Ghali is the leader of the Polisario Front, an Algeria-backed pro-independence movement representing the local Sahrawi people of Africa's mineral-rich Western Sahara, and of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Morocco annexed the Western Sahara in the 1970s after Spain's colonial administration ended.

It considers the vast territory part and parcel of the Moroccan kingdom.

The Polisario Front has long tried to end Moroccan rule over the region.

Ghali departed hours after testifying on Tuesday via videoconference in a Spanish investigation into allegations against him of torture, genocide and other crimes.

A Spanish magistrate ruled after Ghali's testimony that he should remain free while the investigation continues.