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Basque Info 13/01/10
Submitted by admin on Og, 2010/01/14 - 11:03
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Former ETA members deny involvement of armed organisation in setting up Egunkaria
Basque political prisoners start protests.
Five alleged ETA members and one refugee arrested.
Read here the bulletin:
- Former ETA members deny involvement of armed organisation in setting up Egunkaria
On Tuesday 12th, on the third day of the Basque language newspaper Egunkaria trial, former ETA members Jose Luis Alvarez Santacristina aka ‘Txelis’, Jose Mari Dorronsoro and Carmen Gisasola appeared at the Spanish National Criminal Court as witnesses for the prosecution.
Egunkaria’s editorial council members Joan Mari Torrealdai, Iñaki Uria, Martxelo Otamendi, Txema Auzmendi and Xabier Oleaga had been indicted on charges of being ETA members.
The three former ETA members gave evidence as witnesses because, according to police sources, at the time of their arrest they had been found to be in possession of documents pertaining to Egunkaria. But on Tuesday the three denied that the armed organisation had ever promoted a Basque-language newspaper, or that they had intervened in it. Dorronsoro said that Egunkaria had not been mentioned “at all” during the executive committee meeting of the armed organisation ETA, and Gisasola declared that while she was a member of ETA she knew nothing about the project.
Before them officers of the Spanish Guardia Civil police gave evidence as witnesses today at the request of the prosecution. On 20 February 2003, the Spanish Guardia Civil had closed down Egunkaria on the orders of Judge Juan del Olmo of the Spanish National Criminal Court believing that the newspaper had connections with ETA, but the Spanish Guardia Civil did not submit any evidence against Egunkaria on Tuesday, either. One officer said he thought that the case had been dropped. When questioned about the fact that the people running Egunkaria had been tortured at the time of their arrest, the Spanish Guardia Civil officers said that everything had proceeded “normally”.
The defendants Joan Mari Torrealdai, Iñaki Uria, Martxelo Otamendi, Txema Auzmendi and Xabier Oleaga said they were full of renewed energy after receiving the support of thousands and thousands of Basques in Bilbao on December 19. Torrealdai said, “After today’s session, too, the independence of Egunkaria and the innocence of the defendants will be clearer than ever.”
The panel of trial judges is keen to present its summary on 27 January.
-Basque political prisoners start protests.
As we previously reported the 742 members of the Basque Political Prisoners Collective (EPPK) began a series of protests this week which will go on throughout the whole year. The prisoners want to respond to the increased repression in the Basque Country and the harshening of conditions in jail. They also demand the immediate release of all seriously ill prisoners and those who are still kept in prison despite having served completed their sentences.
From Monday the prisoners refused to leave their cells and as a consequence they won’t be able to go to the yard or to courses, they won’t be able to take visits, receive letters or make phone calls and many of them probably won’t be given food.
This is the first phase and the campaign will escalate in coming months when the second phase will start with hunger strikes.
Last Wednesday 70-year-old Basque political prisoner Juan Jose Rego suffered a heart attack. He had two angina pectoris in 2009 the last one on Christmas Day. He’s been in jail for 16 years, he is almost blind and deaf and among others he has prostate problems. His family denounced the lack of medical assistance in jail and expressed their fears about the future.
44,000 people demonstrated in Bilbao two weeks ago to demand the Basque prisoners’ rights are respected and to ask for their repatriation in the largest rally in the Basque Country in years. Despite this support the Spanish and French authorities continue to ignore these demands and increased the criminalization campaign through their allied media.
Hundreds of people confronted snow and cold last Friday to show support to the Basque political prisoners and took part in the weekly vigils across the country.
-Five alleged ETA members and one refugee arrested.
Two alleged ETA members, Inaki Iribarren and Eider Uruburu, were arrested in the south of France last week when, according to police sources, they were leaving an ETA arms dump which had been under surveillance for months.
Another two, Garikoitz Garcia and Iratxe Yanez, were arrested in Portugal after escaping from a Spanish police checkpoint a few miles away from the border. The police said they found explosives and weapons in a van. The Spanish authorities requested their extradition.
Also last week Peio Olano was arrested by the Spanish Guardia Civil. After five days of incommunicado detention he was sent to jail where he was finally able to talk to his lawyer and reported the terrible tortures he suffered at the hands of the Guardia Civil. He stated that he was suffocated with plastic bags and rolled up in a blanket while four policemen jumped on him, that he received threats against his young son, and that he was continuously beaten and was obliged to do physical exercises.
Finally, last Friday night young political escapee Ibai Pena was arrested in the north of the Basque Country and later sent to jail while awaiting an extradition hearing.
