The judge of the Audiencia Nacional María Tardón has asked the Ministry of Defense to clarify whether between July 29 and August 10 there were Moroccan warships or military vessels in Spanish territorial waters adjacent to Ceuta, another step in the investigation into the irregular entry of migrants into the autonomous city.
In an order released this Wednesday, the magistrate requests the General Staff of Defense to report if there was the "entry, permanence, transit or presence" of units of the Moroccan Navy in those waters and, if so, if there was any "action, reaction, approach or interaction" with the Spanish Navy or another military unit.
She also requests, if they exist, recordings of these possible stays and wants to know if the same situation has been repeated from August 10 until today, under what circumstances and to what extent.
The request is expanded, but the judge does not consider the connection proven
Although she expands the proceedings, Tardón emphasizes that, "for the moment, there is no objective element" to affirm that an eventual Moroccan naval presence in waters near Ceuta had "participation, intervention, collaboration or causal relationship" with the massive entry of migrants.
The investigating judge adds that, so far, "no data incorporated into the case" allows to sustain that the action of warships of the Navy of the Kingdom of Morocco was part of the mechanism of organization, facilitation or execution of these events. In the same resolution, the judge dismisses several of the measures requested by the popular prosecution of Iustitia Europa, considering them "disproportionate", among them the request to prevent the deletion, overwriting or destruction of radar records.
The CNI places Morocco in prior knowledge of the flow, but does not close the case
The decision comes after the judge received a report last week from the National Intelligence Center, which states that Morocco knew in advance that the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta was being prepared on July 30 and 31 and that its authorities were "fully aware" that this flow was going to occur.
This document also states that the Moroccan authorities knew "in detail" the calls disseminated on social networks, with "a large following" among their users, which called for this entry coinciding with the Throne Day.
The same report places that entry in the context of more than 70,000 people who would have accessed the autonomous city in those days, although that reference does not, by itself, resolve the question now being examined by the Audiencia Nacional: whether or not there was a presence of Moroccan naval units in Spanish waters and what real effect it could have had.
