Three of the lawyers of the eight persons charged in summary 13/13 appeared this Monday morning to legally assess the trial and the procedure. In the words of Jone Goirizelaia, Alfonso Zenon and Aiert Larrarte, the procedure is full of "irregularities" and "violation of rights". Some of them have been banished.

On the one hand, the detainees’ lawyers have denounced that some of them were tortured by their partners. They recalled that in the police operation conducted in 2010 a civil guard left a report at the home of one of the forgotten detainees specifying the unequal treatment of detainees: “Excellent treatment of lawyers; treatment of others in obtaining statements confirming the court’s indictment.” The reports of the forensics give for certain the torture reported in 2010, as well as the Basque Government, through an investigation led by Paco Etxeberria. They have also recalled that the current Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Marlaska, was the investigating judge of the police operation that is taking place.

Prior to the police operation, the lawyers of the National Court have ensured that the Spanish secret services carried out illegal searches on the defendants. In the context of the operation, the records of the lawyers’ offices in Bilbao and Hernani have considered that the “professional secrecy” has been violated: “The records were irregular and void”. Finally, the defenders have denounced that this is a second conviction of those accused of the same crime, which would violate the basic legal principle bis in idem: “Four of the eight have already been convicted of supporting and assisting Basque political prisoners and three of them were tried in 2019 in the case against Herrira, and they have all served their sentences. They want to re-judge them with the same tests, documents and reports.”

Agreement or cancellation of evidence

At last week's hearing, the defendants assured that this was an attempt at agreement. Lawyers have ratified this intention, “we are trying”, but they have made it clear that it does not exist at the moment. In the event of the trial, and on the basis of all previous irregularities, they have advanced that they will request the annulment of the reports and evidence.

Ángela Murillo, Prosecutor José Perals

The trial would be held in Criminal Chamber number 4 of the Spanish National Court. The president of the jury would be Angela Murillo, who among others judged the Bateragune case, and the prosecutor José Perals, known for being a prosecutor in the case of Alsasua.