Ms. Judge of the Bayona Court of Justice dismisses:

In March, I was judged by some Euskaltzales in Baiona for taking part in some of the actions we have taken to denounce the unfair treatment suffered by the Basque authorities in the French state. At the beginning of the trial, I told them that I wanted to declare in Basque. The prosecutor opposed this because, in his view, I spoke French well, because, if I declared in Basque, I would prolong the trial by translation and, according to the French Constitution, I had to be prohibited from declaring myself in Basque.

Following the counsel's views, the chief judge refused to declare me in Basque. So I started explaining to him in French why he wanted to declare in Basque. He interrupted me immediately and didn't let me explain anything to him.

This unjust attitude of the judge, from the outset, showed that the trial itself was unfair. Precisely, how can a judge judge judge the actions of the Basque Country to denounce the unfair treatment suffered by the Basque Country, if that judge gives unfair treatment to the Basque Country? On the subject of French in Euskal Herria, judges are judges and a problem.

So I decided not to intervene in the unfair trial and left the courthouse. If the judge had allowed me to speak, I would say to him that the views of the prosecutor who had passed them were not fair justifications.

It is precisely because mastering French over Euskera does not make it possible to ban the declaration in Euskera. I often speak in French and Spanish, I love those two languages, but the Basques have the legitimacy of living in the Basque Country.

That the declaration in Basque would lengthen the judgment for the translation? Those who do not understand the Basque Country could lengthen the trial! Attorneys and judges who do not understand the Basque, we can help you to learn Basque.

If the French Constitution prohibits us from declaring the Basques in Basque, it is an unjust, inhumane Constitution and a murderous language to which judges must disobey.

So I left the court and you continued the trial, without legitimacy, because in a trial there has to be a possibility of declaring the defendant, and that possibility you denied me. I was refused to explain the reasons why the facts were committed. And he unjustly condemned me: one month late in jail and EUR 500 fine.

In order to denounce that the students are forbidden to pass the lower in Euskera, on 17 May five Euskaltzales wrote on the exterior wall of the Baiona Subprefecture “Geldi euskara zapaltza”.

In the years 2022 and 2023, to ask for priority to Euskera, several Euskaltzales, in eleven towns of Nafarroa Beherea, we removed the erdaldunes route signals and took them to the Bizkaia Bridge of Portugalete. Unesco declared this bridge a World Cultural Heritage Site. The Basque activists said that the Basque Country, with all the languages of the rest of the world, is a cultural heritage of mankind; we also denounce that the authorities of the French and Spanish states trample on the Basque Country and that UNESCO remains silent in this situation.

By participating in these events, on 10 September you will judge me in Baiona. In this trial, I also intend to testify in Basque. For the beauty of linguistic diversity, and to do justice to the Basque, let me declare myself in Basque.

Ladies and gentlemen, please receive my good greetings.

Behorlegi, 27 August 2024.

Gorka Roca Torre, member of the Euskal group Herrian Euskaraz