Spain: Concern over proceedings in Basque youth association trial
01 September 2005
Euskal Herria Watch (EHWatch), an observatory composed of lawyers from different countries, was established to monitor judicial proceedings against members of Basque organisations charged of ETA membership or collaboration with ETA as part of the ongoing judicial proceedings against the izquierda abertzale (nationalist left) scene which is accused by prosecutors of being part of ETA's network. The charges in the mammoth case 18/98+, launched by judge Baltasár Garzón, affect over 100 people involved in different organisations. The trial against 42 members of the Basque youth organisations Jarrai, Haika and Segi, (cases 18/01 and 15/02), was the first of the large-scale trials to be held. On 20 June 2005, it resulted in sentences being passed against 28 persons (16 received three year and six-month prison sentences, eight received two years and six-month sentences, with four acquittals; charges against the remaining defendants were withdrawn). The court also found that the youth organisations were of an illegal nature although they were not deemed to be terrorist. They were included in the EU list of terrorist organisations as part of ETA at the behest of the Aznar government in December 2001 before any sentence against them had been passed. The next large-scale trial involving former case 18/98+ (which was later broken up), sees 59 defendants face terrorist charges. It has been scheduled for 14 November 2005.
The EHwatch report on the trial claims that there have been limits on the right to a defence, as defence lawyers and defendants faced difficulties resulting from the short notice that was given before the trial began, the dispersal of prisoners to jails all over Spain, the fact that police witnesses are automatically deemed protected witnesses and thus cannot be recognised by defendants, other than by a number [a measure applied to prevent them from being targeted for revenge attacks], and that there was little contact between the accused and their lawyers in court as the former have to participate from a cage. As for the charges brought against the defendants, the report notes that there was a lack of allegations or charges concerning specific criminal acts carried out by individuals against which they could defend themselves. Rather, the focus is seeking to prove their involvement in the banned organisations involved in criminal activities (such as the kale borroka, street violence). A thread is strung back to links between ETA and the Coordinadora Abertzale Socialista (KAS), which Jarrai participated in "at some point", and through to the organisations that followed Jarrai (Haika and Segi).
The report also describes the use of pre-emptive detention of defendants for up to four years as an "illegitimate" and "disproportional" repressive measure (some defendants have already served a longer time in prison than the sentences passed against them). It notes that claims that some statements were extracted through torture were not investigated and yet they were used as evidence. Further concerns expressed in the report relate to evidence used, including irregularities in telephone interceptions, inadequate checks, the excessive weight given to "suspicions, assumptions and speculation" by the police, the use of "ambiguous" penal types and "expansive" interpretations to criminalise "legal, public and transparent activities". The sentences passed against the defendants are described as "excessive", and the fact that the defendants were acquitted of charges of terrorism is considered a ground for the next trials of the 18/98+ case (involving ETA's "network)" to be under the jurisdiction of an ordinary court rather than the Audiencia Nacional (a Madrid-based court that has exclusive competence for hearing cases involving terrorist offences), which is deemed to be subjected to great political and media pressure.
Final Report by the Comisión Internacional de Juristas contra la Criminalización de Ideas en Euskal Her