Last December, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that the defendants in the Bateragune case should be re-tried from scratch. The defence, however, lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Court (TC) on the grounds that it violates the rights of these persons who must be re-tried, an appeal which the latter admitted to proceedings two weeks ago. It has now communicated – as EFE has reported – that it suspends the Supreme Court’s decision to hold a new trial, at least until nothing is resolved on that appeal.
The five accused in Bateragune totaled the prison sentence imposed by the Spanish National High Court in 2011. In particular, Miren Zabaleta, Arkaitz Rodríguez and Sonia Jacinto served six years and Arnaldo Otegi and Rafa Díez served six and a half years in prison.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Strasbourg, suspended these penalties in 2018, and the Supreme ordered the re-trial.
That was said to me by the former student, who took a long time to file a complaint that was in court months and who, on the recommendation of the psychologist, had withdrawn the complaint of rape. And I kept quiet, unable to guess what to tell the young man that he still had... [+]