“We were stopped so that ETA did not leave the political equation of Euskal Herria”
- EH coordinator Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, spoke on behalf of the defendants in the Bateragune case and expressed satisfaction at the decision of the Constitutional Court not to repeat the case. It urges the Spanish State to democratically channel the desire for freedom of the peoples of the State.
Arnaldo Otegi has acknowledged that Basque independentists are not accustomed to winning lawsuits in Spain and are very happy, but the decision “has come fifteen years late”. He comments that, as is now seen in Catalonia, lawfare problems are very numerous, but that this is very old in Euskal Herria and that was the strategy of illegalization that was against the Abertzale left: “That’s political harassment, state violence.”
And why were they prosecuted in the Bateragune case? “I will say raw: we were arrested to prevent a new scenario without ETA.” Moreover, he stressed that with this they intended to neutralize the future potential of the Abertzale left, but that they have not succeeded, “today, fifteen years later, the independence left is the first municipal force of Euskal Herria. They have therefore failed and we are glad of it.”
“They have done everything to stop independence,” said Otegi, referring to the intervention of the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès. It also says that the independentisms of Euskal Herria and the Spanish State have tried to prevent them by undemocratic means, but have not succeeded. It therefore calls on the State to provide a democratic solution to existing national problems, regardless of “repressions and lowfares”: “The State must give the floor to Basque nations and other nations, and accept and respect its decision”.
The Abertzale Left Declaration of 18 October 2021 has also brought to the assessment: “Then we said that we should not pass the suffering here.” He recognizes that they caused suffering, but that they were not the only ones, that others did, but that they have not yet: “When will you publicly accept this responsibility?” He explains that it is not up to him to propose prosecutions in criminal matters, but to take steps in coexistence.
Constitutional Court: seven faces, four against
On Wednesday, the Spanish Constitutional Court, on the proposal of the court judge Juan Carlos Campo, decided not to repeat the case. In 2018, the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found that defendants were not guaranteed due process.
The Supreme Court therefore considered that the sentence should be repeated. This decision was appealed by the defendants to the Spanish Constitutional Court, which has now decided that a person cannot be tried twice for the same offence. The Constitutional Court consists of eleven judges, seven advocate not repeating the sentence and four against. This closes the issue that began in 2011. As a result of his conviction, Arnaldo Otegi, Arkaitz Rodriguez, Sonia Jacinto, Miren Zabaleta and Rafa Díez have spent between six and ten years in prison.
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