Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

"There are laws that punish political dissent and there are judges who apply them enthusiastically"

  • On 19 October, a macro-trial will begin at the National Hearing scheduled for the National Hearing. For three days, twelve independent militants of the organizations Causa Galiza and Ceivar will be tried, charged with terrorist offences, based on activities that have been legal and public. The Public Prosecutor’s Office calls for 102 years of imprisonment and the legalization of the two organizations. Elvira Souto, the Observatory for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms, of the organization Esculca, has explained to us the main axes of the process, placing judgment in a more general context: Ten years after the disappearance of ETA, the use of exceptional legal weapons and the criminalisation of all dissent were built for the Basque Country.

16 October 2020 - 14:39
Ceivar antolakundeko militante auzipetuak. Ezkerretik eskuinera: Iria Calvelo Pumar, Afonso García Fuentes, Ugio Caamanho Santiso. Argazkia: Ceivar.

The trial for these events will be held from this Monday. How are the accused?

The defendants have just said that they are nervous, that they have a great burden on their backs, but that they have received more protection than they expected, and that they are very encouraged by it. Some of the accused have been in political and social activism for years, which hardens their skin.

You mentioned the burden. For years the process began, it summarizes what happened.

In 2015, the Police carried out an operation, called JARO, in which neither of the two suspects had been identified. Nine people from the political party Causa Galiza were arrested, around a few hours in the evening, for false abuses. It was amazing. It was a legal political association, with legal political activity within the legal system of the Spanish State. The houses and workplaces were registered, they took everything they wanted: computers, documentation of the association... They did really unpleasant things. One of the detainees had a heart condition and had just been intervened, so his brother was taken to his home to see the detainee as well. On their way to Madrid, they had their head covered, suffered threats or blasphemies... Unfortunately, less weird things.

The National Court had temporarily banned the activity of Causa Galicia, but then lifted the ban and it seemed that everything would be forgotten. Then, in 2018, the second police operation, called Jaro 2, arrived. In this case, the militants of the Ceivar organization were arrested. Ceivar is a movement against repression, supporting prisoners, offering lawyers to detainees...

The summary presents evidence of terrorist activities as public actions carried out with the authorization of the authorities: It is Dia patria to organize Galega or Dia da Galiza Combatente, show solidarity with the prisoners, welcome the prisoners when they leave...

There is a particularly curious "test": Celebration of the day of the martyrs of Carral. It is a historic day, well known in Galicia. In 1846 there was a military uprising throughout the state, which failed, but in Galicia it did not at first. Subsequently, the rebels were murdered in the village of Carral, in the south of the country. It is a fact that is taught in schools, students do redactions... The National High Court considers its celebration to be an indication of terrorism.

What are the demands for punishment?

The defendants are accused of crimes of alluding to terrorism and belonging to a criminal organisation with the aim of paying tribute to terrorism. Some are asked for six years in prison, another four... In total 102 years for twelve people. In addition, the economic fines, the long disqualifications for any public employment – some of the defendants are civil servants and would lose their jobs – and the illegalisation of the organisations Causa Galiza and Ceivar. In the Basque Country that happened with many organisations, but it would be the first time that it was held in Galicia.

In the court's account, "the original sin", is the violent actions attributed to Resistenza Galega.

That is where we need to be very nuanced. It is not clear whether we refer to the activities carried out by Resistenza Galega, an organized group or by people who were not organized, who used that motto. “Resistenza galega” is a generalized motto, such as “viva galiza ceive”. In any case, when we talk about violence we refer to a few actions with explosives that were carried out in certain places, then there was nothing else. However, several people were arrested and imprisoned as an organized group, although they were not sufficiently tested. At the time of his release from prison, some of these persons were received, and some of the persons who signed the Government Delegation ' s authorization for these receipts are those currently charged for the violation of terrorism.

All the logic of the anti-terrorism policies in Euskal Herria.

Of course, because the problem comes from behind, when that terrible Party Law was passed. The vague definition of terrorism and praise made such operations possible. It may be that Galicia does not have the international echo of Euskal Herria or now of the Catalan countries, which fortunately is a great deal, but here we militate in favour of civil rights or fundamental freedoms, from the outset we realised the gravity: first by the Basque organisations concerned, but second because we saw that it would spread like a blot of oil. Repression is always like that, today it is up to you and tomorrow it is up to me. Surely when the barn of Euskal Herria ran out, they thought, let's go for a walk through Galicia. Because it is incredible that these people and associations are charged in this procedure. There's no violent activity here. Amazing.

You are a militant of Esculca, an observatory of freedoms and rights. How do you see that the legal architecture of exception erected in the name of the fight against ETA is in force in 2020?

That logic does not cease. Not only are we Galicians, Catalans and Basques, but they have carried out five operations against spaces and people related to anarchism: raperos, puppeteers... It appears that the National Hearing has to justify its existence. There are laws that punish political dissent and judges that apply them fiercely.

On Thursday some of the accused appeared at a press conference in the Congress of Deputies together with several political parties. The representative of the accused assured that more support had been received than was expected.

In Galicia, solidarity has been received from trade unions, associations, political parties and personalities of Galician society, among others. Not externally, but here the subject has had a great presence in the public sphere. Unlike what happens in Euskal Herria, it would be the first time in Galicia that some association outlaws its ideas. The defendants themselves say that they are nervous and scared, that they do not like to be tried in the National Court, that they did not expect any of that, but that they feel very protected. And that's very important.


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