28 March 2012
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Spain: Court dismisses terrorist charges in Basque youth association trial
On 20 June 2005, the fourth section of the Audiencia Nacional
tribunal in Madrid, which has exclusive competence for cases
involving terrorist offences, dismissed the charges of "terrorism"
that were brought against members of the youth associations Jarrai,
Haika and Segi, who were on trial accused of "membership
of the terrorist organisation ETA", and against whom prosecutors
(one for the state and another from the Asociación de
víctimas del terrorismo (AVT, Association of victims of
terrorism)) had demanded ten-year prison sentences. 24 defendants
were found guilty of leadership or membership of illegal associations,
and prison sentences of three years and six months were passed
against the 16 people who were considered leaders, whereas the
eight who were considered "active members" were sentenced
to two and a half years in prison. Four people were acquitted
after prosecutors dropped the charges against them. None of the
people who were sentenced will serve any further time in prison,
as most of them had already been in preventative custody for
several years, in some cases only a few weeks short of four years.
The court found that these associations were not part of ETA,
and were not terrorist groups because they don't have the declared
aim of using weapons, although they were deemed to carry out
an "auxiliary" activity to the armed group, leading
the court to decree their dissolution. The guilty verdicts were
based on the court's view that these organisations are of an
"illegal nature" because "under an appearance
of activities in a social youth milieu from the perspective of
a nationalist and left-wing ideology", they had the aim
of "carrying out activities that attack property or strictly
personal goods, such as freedom and security, through criminal
acts", including involvement in the so-called kale borroka
(consisting in urban violence or "street struggle").This
ruling counters the argument presented by judge Baltasar Garzón
that Jarrai and its successors (set up after it was illegalised)
are part of the armed group's infrastructure and subordinated
to ETA. The trial was the first in a long list of cases instructed
by Garzón based on this theory against a number of abertzale
(left-nationalist) organisations, members of which are set to
face charges of terrorist membership in the Audiencia Nacional.
These proceedings affect members of political parties, prisoner
support groups or bars frequented by members of this political
scene ("herriko tabernas") which are considered to
be part of ETA's network (also referred to by prosecutors as
the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Vasco (MLNV, Basque
National Liuberation Movement)). Some of the organisations they
address are Ekin, Xaki, Gestoras Pro Amnistía, Askatasuna,
Batasuna, Udalbiltza and the Fundación Joxemi Zumalabe.
The state prosecution has announced that it will appeal the verdicts
against the members of Jarrai, Segi and Haika.
Source: El País, 21.6.2005. Full-text of the sentence
available (in Spanish) at: http://www.ehwatch.org/docs/sent20050620.pdf
A legal observatory on this and the up-coming court cases against
Basque activists accused of membership of ETA, established lawyers
from Spain (including members of the Asociación Catalana
de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, of the Madrid Asociación
Libre de Abogados, of the Galician Observatory on civil rights
and freedoms - Esculca) and abroad (including members of the
German RAV lawyers' trade union, of the US branch of Amnesty
International, of the Italian Network of Democratic Lawyers and
lawyers from Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Mexico and South Africa),
includes reports on the court hearings and background documents,
is online at: http://www.ehwatch.org
Statewatch News Online: Spain: Court report on the Gabriele Kanze case
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