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Haidar "left to continue hunger strike" in Lanzarote airport
07/12/2009
The duty judge in Lanzarote, Jerónimo Alonso, left Aminatou Haidar to continue her hunger strike after overseeing a medical examination of the Sahrawi human rights activist in the airport last night.
Lola Travieso, lawyer for the activist's pressure group, confirmed to waiting reporters that the judge had "respected Haidar's wishes to continue her hunger strike in the airport and not to be moved to a hospital for treatment".
She also confirmed that Haidar had been "conscious" throughout the examination and "in full use of all her faculties" and that she cannot be hospitalised without her consent according to the patients' charter.
Haidar, who is campaigning for the independence of Western Sahara, has been on hunger strike since 16th November in protest at being deported from El Aaiún to Lanzarote. She had her passport confiscated on arrival at El Aaiún airport for refusing to write 'Moroccan' as her nationality on the landing card.
There had been some hope on Friday that she was going to be allowed back to El Aaiún on her own terms on Friday, but Moroccan authorities refused to grant landing permission for the Spanish plane requisitioned to take her home.
Government officials in the Canary Islands requested urgent assistance yesterday to "guarantee the life and physical well-being" of Haidar, pointing out that the activist was on the point of "irreversible damage" to her body.
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The duty judge in Lanzarote, Jerónimo Alonso, left Aminatou Haidar to continue her hunger strike after overseeing a medical examination of the Sahrawi human rights activist in the airport last night.
Lola Travieso, lawyer for the activist's pressure group, confirmed to waiting reporters that the judge had "respected Haidar's wishes to continue her hunger strike in the airport and not to be moved to a hospital for treatment".
She also confirmed that Haidar had been "conscious" throughout the examination and "in full use of all her faculties" and that she cannot be hospitalised without her consent according to the patients' charter.
Haidar, who is campaigning for the independence of Western Sahara, has been on hunger strike since 16th November in protest at being deported from El Aaiún to Lanzarote. She had her passport confiscated on arrival at El Aaiún airport for refusing to write 'Moroccan' as her nationality on the landing card.
There had been some hope on Friday that she was going to be allowed back to El Aaiún on her own terms on Friday, but Moroccan authorities refused to grant landing permission for the Spanish plane requisitioned to take her home.
Government officials in the Canary Islands requested urgent assistance yesterday to "guarantee the life and physical well-being" of Haidar, pointing out that the activist was on the point of "irreversible damage" to her body.
Related Topics
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