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Mohamed Fadel Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih Politician

Mohamed-Fadel Ould Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih (1952 – May 6, 2002) was a Sahrawi nationalist politician, member of the Polisario Front. He was a prominent member of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic diplomatic corps, holding several posts as SADR ambassador or Polisario Front representative. In 1972 he got involved in the Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (the precursor of the Polisario Front) headed by El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed. As Ouali, he got arrested and tortured by Moroccan police during the Tan-Tan demonstrations (25–27 May). In 1975, he was part of the Information committee of the POLISARIO, where he became known as a journalist. Shortly after, he became the editor in chief of the Sáhara Libre newspaper. From 1981, he started to manage as POLISARIO representative, first for Europe, then for France and Sweden. Subsequently, he was councelor to the presidency of the SADR, and to the Sahrawi Commission for the Referendum. In 1995, he returned to his old post as POLISARIO representative for France. Briefly, he occupied in 1999 the SADR's Ministry of Information, being one of the founders of the Sahrawi Republic official press agency, the Sahara Press Service. In 1998 he wrote the book Les Sahraouis. From 1999 to 2001 he was appointed as SADR ambassador to Ethiopia, and permanent representative to the Organization for African Unity. In 2001 he was designated as POLISARIO representative for the United Kingdom and Ireland. That year he wrote the book La République Sahraouie, where he reviews the history and the structure of the SADR. In the night of May 5–6, 2002, Fadel Ismail died in Brixton, London, due to an asthma crisis, followed by a heart attack. A Sahrawi press and cultural centre in Algiers was named "Mohamed Fadel Ismail" in 2004 in his honour.