- The French Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested mild prison sentences for Jean Noel Txetx Etcheverry and Beatrice Moller, who are being tried in Paris, on the charge of acting in accordance with ETA’s objectives. So with these penalties, peacemakers should not go to jail. The judgment will be delivered on 16 May. The Camino de la Paz denounces that the prosecution remains "exhausted in a repressive vision".
In the trial against Beatrice Molle and Jean Noel Txetx Etcheverry, who participated in the Luhuso operation and the disarmament of ETA, the French anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office has made a request for conviction at the second and last session held in Paris, in which he asks for a one-year sentence for Moller and two for Etcheverry.
Thus, the prosecutor proposes mild penalties that, according to his words, would be "pious penalties". Moreover, neither their names, nor those of the other deceased peacemakers, such as Mixel Berhokoirigoin, Mixel Bergouina and Michel Tubiana, would appear in the anti-terrorist file because the prosecutor has not requested it.
In any case, the representative of the French State has made a strong speech against the defendants and accused them of "acting in accordance with ETA's objectives": "it was ETA's will to dodge the French and Spanish States".
"No war, terrorist acts"
He states that it is not for the court to "agree on a report" on the end of ETA. But he continues his story. He questions ETA's decision to leave arms in 2011, because he continued with the armed action after the 2006 truce: "There have been no warriors in Euskal Herria, but terrorist acts", said the prosecutor, as Ekhi Erremunerdegi explained in the chronicle of Berria.
It has also underlined the dangerous nature of the arsenal in which peacemakers have intervened, and has even accused them of preventing the identification of weapons and of wanting to eliminate evidence. He says Luhuso's 2016 operation "has nothing to do with the 2017 disarmament," Maite Ubiria said on URL 0.
Prosecutor's Vision "twenty years ago"
Defense attorney Xatiana Cachenaut has strongly criticized this view of the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office: "It is 20 years ago", "although in Euskal Herria the situation has changed a lot". The Bake Bideak association has also denounced that the prosecution remains "exhausted in a repressive approach."
Defence lawyer Jean François Blanco believes that the disarmament of 8 April 2017 would not be possible without Luhuso: "Instead of judging, peacemakers deserve our recognition"
The other defense attorney, Jean François Blanco, and all witnesses, believes that the disarmament of 8 April 2017 would not be possible without Luhuso's: "Instead of judging, peacemakers deserve our recognition." Thus, the four defense attorneys claim the "clean and simple" acquittal of the defendants.
The Paris Criminal Court will issue a judgment on 16 May.
Peacemaking memory
At the end of the trial, Etcheverry complains that a conviction against the two defendants would soak up the memory of the already deceased peacemakers: "They were people for peace and justice," he recalls.
In the same vein the Peace Road has spoken: "We believe that only a bonus would give meaning to Luhuso's historic action," he explained through notes.
Concentrations
On Wednesday, meetings were held in the seven Basque capitals to call for the exculpation of the peacemakers and show solidarity. At the invitation of numerous unions and agents, dozens of people have met in Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Donostia-San Sebastián, Maulen, Donibane Garazi, Baiona and Iruñea under the motto "The Exculpation of Euskal Herria".
They also stress the need to continue working to advance the peace process, inter alia, so that exceptional prison policies are suspended.