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INPRIMATU
The 5 of Leioa will be tried on September 27
  • They require prison sentences over 40 years and economic penalties of EUR 45,000 for '5 de Leioa'. The young people were prosecuted in the face of a mobilization of students at the Leioa campus in 2016 and remark the responsibility of the UPV/EHU.
Gedar @GedarLangileKZ 2023ko uztailaren 28a
Kasuaren berri emateko egin zuten prentsaurrekoa Leioako Errektoretzan / Argazkia: Gedar

Seven years later, the trial of Case 5 of Leioa appears to be ever closer: it will be held on 27 September and continue to demand terrible penalties for those involved. A total of 41 and a half years of imprisonment for them, seventeen for each, in the case of two persons. They also intend to impose fines of EUR 45,000.

The defendants held a press conference last year on the campus of Leioa (Bizkaia) to report on the sanctions that had come to the table in connection with the proceedings against them. The unlikely judicial route remains the same today and the date of the trial is set. "After seven years, this barbarism continues," the young people say will be tried. Two of them, Gabi Daraspe and Ander Mazkiaran, explained last year to Gedar Langile Kazetari in 2016 and later what happened through this interview.

5 of Leioa recalled that they were arrested and processed as a result of a mobilisation that took place on the Leioa campus in 2016. "At that time, our goal was to end the repression suffered by the student movement from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU); imputations, follow-up, threats to open academic records, fines, obstacles to political militancy... However, the university's response was once again repression," they denounced.

Political rights are at risk and the UPV

"We live in distress, in the face of social protest, the rise of authoritarianism by states and the restriction of workers' political rights. They seek to make political militancy increasingly unbearable, when the context of crisis makes protest and militancy increasingly necessary", they rejected.

On the other hand, the UPV/EHU is again indicated: "The responsibility of the UPV/EHU is correct. They radically cut off the guarantee of political freedoms that a public university should have. Since 2016 the situation has not improved, as the student movement continues to denounce the authoritarianism of the UPV/EHU". 5 Leioa recalled, for example, all the repression suffered by 34 students detained in Vitoria (Álava) during a student strike last year.

They insist that "solidarity and organization" are "our strength", and have given "all its support and all its strength" to the "repressed for carrying forward political militancy in university".