Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism 228 August/September 2012
Despite the announcement by the Basque nationalist group ETA in October 2011 that it was ending its armed struggle for independence, there has been no let-up in the Spanish state’s assault on Basque nationalists across Europe. On 13 July, Benat Atorrasagasti Ordonez was arrested in Edinburgh, after living openly in Britain since 2001, ‘in connection with historical crimes’ allegedly committed in France and Spain over ten years ago. Two weeks earlier, Antonio Troitino and Ignacio Leron were arrested during police raids in west London. Troitino had previously served 24 years of a prison sentence in Spain and was released in 2011, following a court ruling that six years he had served on remand should count towards the sentence. Under Spanish law, the maximum sentence is 30 years. He fled to Britain in the face of a sustained media campaign against him in Spain. The Spanish interior ministry then decided he should now serve the six years and issued an arrest warrant.
All three men have been remanded in custody and, on 20 July a hearing at Westminster magistrates’ court found that Troitino and Leron could be returned to face trial in Spain. The treatment of ETA prisoners in Spain has been criticised by Amnesty International, with extensive use of prolonged solitary confinement, dispersal away from their families, lack of access to adequate legal representation and infringement of basic rights.
The Spanish government has refused to recognise the ETA ceasefire, demanding a handover of weapons, continuing to harass supporters of the organisation’s former political wing, Batasuna, and refusing to negotiate over the future status of the Basque country. The arrest of the Basque activists in Britain was part of a wider, co-ordinated crackdown, with arrests also taking place in France and Spain. Seventeen suspected ETA sympathisers have been arrested in Europe since January 2012.
Free all Basque prisoners!
Cat Wiener
