More On Peio Zubiria

In case you want to learn more about Peio Zubiria and the ill treatment he is receiving from authoritarian Madrid from the KickAS webpage:

Judge orders prison for Pello Zubiria, but he will remain in hospital till he obtains medical authorisation

Zubiria is in the ICU taken of pneumonia and cannot move. Yesterday his wife Malores Etxeberria visit him twice. "He had a hard time and he is still having hard time" declares Malores Etxeberria after visiting her husband who has been seven days under arrest and in solitary confinement. Zubiria, co-director of Argia and former director of Egunkaria is in the Intensive Care Unit of Gregorio Marañon hospital since last Sunday taken of pneumonia. The doctors have not specified why he is taken of pneumonia.

In her first visit his wife found him laying on the bed "he cannot move and he is very tired, very sad and thinner than before". She could visit again her husband in the afternoon and found him better. She said to Egunero that they have been speaking and laughing. In the second visit he was sitting screened and with serum. In the few minutes the visits lasted Zubiria did not move. His ankles were swollen and in the opinion of his wife he couldn't move. He told his wife that he knew he was taken of Pneumonia as well as he was arrested.

As Pello Zubiria laid in the hospital the family could not know why he was admitted to. The ICU's doctors said to Malores Etxeberria he tried to commit suicide. Afterwards, last Sunday, they took him to Intensive Care Unit. Before admitting him in the ICU the doctors told to her wife they didn't know the state of health of Zubiria. In yesterday's visits Zubiria had not told even mentioned this. However, the judge's decree said that he ordered Zubiria´s admittance because of "his medical history" and "to take care him".

As the doctors told to his wife, Zubiria was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit seriously ill. In the opinion of Etxeberria now they are looking after him well in hospital. Zubiria is under surveillance of the Spanish police inside and outside his room. He will not be sent to prison to Soto del Real till the doctors allow it and in their opinion "he will have to stay longer".

Following ICU's regulations, his wife could visit him twice a day during ten minutes and so the family will be able to visit him too. In both visits they talk about family above all and the state of health of Zubiria. He didn't specify the Guardia Civil's behaviour clearly but said that "It has been very hard". He related he could hear the screams and cries of the other arrested ones. Referring to him, he said that he was forced to be on his feet all day and he felt cold.

In the second visit they talked a little about arrests and the operation against Egunkaria. Zubiria didn't know who were arrested. He was surprised about the reaction their arrests caused in the Basque Country and when he realised that was his wife was telling him was true "he cheered up a little".

In the first visit "Pello was semi-asleep", but it was obvious the visit "made him happy". "They were lots of days where no one could gave him a hand". For the second visit he wrote a poem dedicated to his fifteen-years-old son Eki and her twelve-years-old Itxaso, but they didn't allow his wife to take them out of the hospital. Zubiria gave evidence in the Juan del Olmo judge's court Wednesday night and yesterday morning and afterwards the judge ordered his imprisonment. However, he will be in hospital till the doctors decide otherwise. The decree the judge wrote to send five of the arrested people to jail and yesterday's decree are almost the same.

The unique difference between them are the decree's last lines. So, the charge against Zubiria is a couple of documents the police found to alleged ETA militants. In those documents there seem to be a comment about the activity of Egunkaria and some people's name, included Zubiria. However, It is not clear where those documents come from and who they are for and it is no evidence of relation between people in the documents and the ETA. Besides that, the judge mentions the business register information to prove Zubiria has been Egunkaria´s director in the first years.

In the end of the decree the judge says ETA took part in the nomination of Zubiria. As in the other cases the judge didn't specify if he charged Zubiria of being an ETA militant or he was charged of co-operating with the organisation.

The staff of Argia asked yesterday in a press note to try to avoid "Zubiria's imprisonment from the hospital because it could worsen his very serious health situation. In the press note Argia staff said that "they knew that different Basque institutions were working to avoid Zubiria's imprisonment, but they wanted to ask again to the institutions and authorities to try hard in the next hours". In the opinion of Argia's workers "It is symptomatic that something serious has happened in the Guardia Civil´s quarters because after testifying in the court the judge instead of ordering send him to prison, sent Pello again to hospital". Argia workers press note goes on saying that "particularly taking into account the reporting that the rest of the arrested workers are putting forth and what they claim they heard in the police quarters".

- That's a note someone posted here: www.sustatu.com/english/egunkaria

Keep referring to that address for information in English. Read also about reports of torture there. The site will move from one point to another until gets soon a definite domain, but clicking there you will get the proper redirection.

-----
I may also add:

The president of the Basque autonomous government Juan Jose Ibarretxe also asked, after a meeting of the Basque Language Council (a consultive body in the Basque autonomous region), for the immediate release of Pello Zubiria, for obvious humanitarian reasons. Ibarretxe also :

* asked for the opening of Egunkaria the newspaper,

* expressed great concern regarding reports of torture and asked for complete investigation.

* rejected strongly the association that some pretend to do between the Basque language community and terrorism

.... ... .