Retaliation - The sentence against Arnaldo Otegi
Retaliation - The sentence against Arnaldo Otegi
The Audiencia Nacional has sentenced to 10 years in prison Arnaldo Otegi and Rafa Diez charging them with wanting to "rebuild Batasuna under the direction of ETA". Sonia Jacinto, Miren Zabaleta Arkaitz Rodriguez have been sentenced to 8 years. In addition, both Otegi and Diez are banned for another 10 years to stand for elections or occupy institutional positions.
Judge Angela Murrillo well represents the special court of the Spanish Audiencia Nacional, its emergency philosophy, its continuity with the Tribunal de Orden Franquista. The judge showed her professionalism with an arrogance out of the ordinary in the 18/98 trial against Basque political associations and movements, and in one of the many lawsuits against Arnaldo Otegi when the sentence was revoked for "lack of impartiality" of the judge towards the defendant. The woman Murillo who managed to sarcastically silence in the trial 18/98 the defendant Nekane Txapartegi, who exposed being tortured and raped during interrogation.
In the trial against the separatist leaders of the Independent left, the sentence of which is known today, Murillo, who presided over the trial of the case, has limited herself, considering the set up by the court with the presence of the judge Bermudez, to control, the proper conduct of the trial. How can a court that wants to minimally comply with the rules of impartiality decides to appoint the same judge who had charged the same defendant and has seen her sentence being revoked in an earlier trial for "lack of impartiality"?
Spanish high ranks of the Special Court had said a couple of months that with the end of ETA, the court must "adapt to new tasks." Yet it is clear the desire to maintain the status quo. They do not want to contribute to a new scenario. And to maintain this state of things there is a legislative architecture built in recent years that allows them to invent scenarios, run threats, prosecute people on the basis of suspicious or intentions.
By coincidence, just yesterday the Attorney General of the State, which politically appoint the Attorney General, released the report on last year activities in which they claims that ETA "continues to have Spanish and French commandos on the ground that can be activated at any time if its strategy does not produce the desired effects." Although ETA has not been active for more than two year. Although ETA agreed in writing and de facto the choice of the Basque separatist left for "a democratic scenario without interference or violence."
Government and state apparatuses do not want to see, do not want to accept. As members of the independent left were saying, Madrid should verify that the ceasefire "permanent, general and verifiable" declared by ETA is such, should accept that a new framework for dialogue and solution to the conflict also requires the contribution of the Spanish government. But the fear of being without arguments in dealing with the political core of the Basque issue brings to behave as if nothing had happened, to maintain the coercive measures, threats, counter-terrorism, ultimately to remain comfortable in a culture that has been the main instrument in this decade to achieve consent in the election.
Then everything is permitted. As the request, advanced by the Attorney General, to charge the mayor of Leitza village where during the feast of the patron there was a banner that required the "repatriation of Basque political prisoners." Or as the threats of the Spanish Minister of Justice against the government of another municipality, that of Alsasua, for allowing a pantomime of King Juan Carlos. And to make sure that there is no doubt about the line followed by the State, we mention the words of the Attorney General, Conde Pumpido, who said about Sortu, (the party created by the Independent Left that in its statute "rejects violence, including that of ETA") that it should not be legalized "as long as ETA exists" .
Today's sentence then falls, unfortunately, perfectly into the pattern of retaliation. That still drives Spanish policy when it comes to the Basque issue. Today to be convicted and sentenced are men and women who have promoted a shift in the Independent Left, abandoning the idea that the armed violence can achieve a context of real democracy in which all the options in the Basque Country may come around a table on a basis of equal rights and where the project for an independent and progressive society based on social justice and international solidarity, can be achieved (if so wanted by the majority of the population). The elections of last May testified that this section of the society has a decisive role in the Basque society as a whole. 114 municipalities and the province of San Sebastian have a left government that claims sovereignty for the Basques. This is what they fear in Madrid. They fear that with the "vote and the word" the Spanish-Basque issue can actually achieve a solution. This is why the political prisoners of opinion Arnaldo Otegi, Rafa Diez, Sonia Jacinto, Arkaitz Rodriguez and Miren Zabaleta were convicted and sentenced by the Spanish justice.
Judge Angela Murrillo well represents the special court of the Spanish Audiencia Nacional, its emergency philosophy, its continuity with the Tribunal de Orden Franquista. The judge showed her professionalism with an arrogance out of the ordinary in the 18/98 trial against Basque political associations and movements, and in one of the many lawsuits against Arnaldo Otegi when the sentence was revoked for "lack of impartiality" of the judge towards the defendant. The woman Murillo who managed to sarcastically silence in the trial 18/98 the defendant Nekane Txapartegi, who exposed being tortured and raped during interrogation.
In the trial against the separatist leaders of the Independent left, the sentence of which is known today, Murillo, who presided over the trial of the case, has limited herself, considering the set up by the court with the presence of the judge Bermudez, to control, the proper conduct of the trial. How can a court that wants to minimally comply with the rules of impartiality decides to appoint the same judge who had charged the same defendant and has seen her sentence being revoked in an earlier trial for "lack of impartiality"?
Spanish high ranks of the Special Court had said a couple of months that with the end of ETA, the court must "adapt to new tasks." Yet it is clear the desire to maintain the status quo. They do not want to contribute to a new scenario. And to maintain this state of things there is a legislative architecture built in recent years that allows them to invent scenarios, run threats, prosecute people on the basis of suspicious or intentions.
By coincidence, just yesterday the Attorney General of the State, which politically appoint the Attorney General, released the report on last year activities in which they claims that ETA "continues to have Spanish and French commandos on the ground that can be activated at any time if its strategy does not produce the desired effects." Although ETA has not been active for more than two year. Although ETA agreed in writing and de facto the choice of the Basque separatist left for "a democratic scenario without interference or violence."
Government and state apparatuses do not want to see, do not want to accept. As members of the independent left were saying, Madrid should verify that the ceasefire "permanent, general and verifiable" declared by ETA is such, should accept that a new framework for dialogue and solution to the conflict also requires the contribution of the Spanish government. But the fear of being without arguments in dealing with the political core of the Basque issue brings to behave as if nothing had happened, to maintain the coercive measures, threats, counter-terrorism, ultimately to remain comfortable in a culture that has been the main instrument in this decade to achieve consent in the election.
Then everything is permitted. As the request, advanced by the Attorney General, to charge the mayor of Leitza village where during the feast of the patron there was a banner that required the "repatriation of Basque political prisoners." Or as the threats of the Spanish Minister of Justice against the government of another municipality, that of Alsasua, for allowing a pantomime of King Juan Carlos. And to make sure that there is no doubt about the line followed by the State, we mention the words of the Attorney General, Conde Pumpido, who said about Sortu, (the party created by the Independent Left that in its statute "rejects violence, including that of ETA") that it should not be legalized "as long as ETA exists" .
Today's sentence then falls, unfortunately, perfectly into the pattern of retaliation. That still drives Spanish policy when it comes to the Basque issue. Today to be convicted and sentenced are men and women who have promoted a shift in the Independent Left, abandoning the idea that the armed violence can achieve a context of real democracy in which all the options in the Basque Country may come around a table on a basis of equal rights and where the project for an independent and progressive society based on social justice and international solidarity, can be achieved (if so wanted by the majority of the population). The elections of last May testified that this section of the society has a decisive role in the Basque society as a whole. 114 municipalities and the province of San Sebastian have a left government that claims sovereignty for the Basques. This is what they fear in Madrid. They fear that with the "vote and the word" the Spanish-Basque issue can actually achieve a solution. This is why the political prisoners of opinion Arnaldo Otegi, Rafa Diez, Sonia Jacinto, Arkaitz Rodriguez and Miren Zabaleta were convicted and sentenced by the Spanish justice.
