Torture in Western Europe

Everytime one thinks Western Europe, one usually thinks of democratic states where the rule of law is upheld and the citizens live their lives without the fear of being repressed by the police.

Somehow Spain manages to get into that picture.

Yet, the evidence to the contrary keeps mounting.

A large percentage of the people that was arrested last couple of months accused of belonging to ETA are now free, there was no evidence to support a process.

They were guilty until proven innocent, a justice travesty quite common in Spain.

One after the other the detainees have logged complaints for mistreatment and torture during the five days they were held incommunicado, a practice that facilitates the torture of those arrested by the police forces.

Here is one more story of a young Basque woman that was tortured and raped for the sole crime of being Basque, it appeared at Berria.

Urizar says Spanish Civil Guard officers raped her with pistol

Her mother has brought to public attention the testimony of the brutal torture she endured while she was being held incommunicado

Aitziber Laskibar – BILBO

Blows, the bag, the bathtub, threats, insults, sexual assaults, fondling and rape. This is the list of everything that Bilbo-born Amaia Urizar, aged 22, suffered during the five days she was in the hands of the Spanish Civil Guard, according to what Urizar herself has written from prison and the testimony read out by her mother during a press conference. Her mother gave details of the brutal torture her daughter had endured. Although her mother, Rosa De Paz, tried to maintain her composure with dignity, her hands shook and she was unable to hold back the tears as he told of the spine-chilling ordeal her daughter had been put through during the five days she was held incommunicado.

Urizar, who is from Bilbo, was arrested at her parents’ home early on October 29 accused of helping ETA. It was the second arrest in the police operation that began with the detention of Haritz Totorika, and was followed by a further eight arrests. All the people arrested in that swoop by the Spanish Civil Guard denounced brutal torture.

Izaskun Gonzalez, a member of the anti-torture group TAT, pointed out that the brutality of the testimonies heard yesterday was similar to that endured by all the other detainees; the dreadful torture suffered by Urizar is not an isolated case. The rest of the people arrested in the same raid denounced the bag, electrodes, the bathtub, rape attempts, blows and threats, among other things.

The detainee alleges that she was raped by Spanish Civil Guards at the police station; a police officer climbed onto the 22-year-old girl and as he fondled his penis between his legs, he raped her with his pistol which, according to the officers, was loaded with bullets.

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