To Jail a Politician

This is not happening in North Korea.

This violation of civil liberties is not taking place in Saddam's Irak.

Many would think that a politician on the opposition could only be jailed in Castro's Cuba.

No.

This is taking place in advanced Europe, where human rights are allegedly upheld against all sorts of abuse.

Not in Spain, not when it comes to the Basques.

Yesterday, Arnaldo Otegi was called to testify in regards of the allegations leveled against him by clown judge Baltasar Garzón.

This is what took place according to BBC News:

The spokesman for the banned Basque nationalist party has been detained on suspicion of being a leader of the armed separatist group Eta.

The judge said there was evidence that Arnaldo Otegi's Batasuna group was in a network with Eta.

Mr Otegi, who has been a member of the Basque regional parliament, can be released from prison if he pays a bail of 400,000 euros (£275,266).

BBC News goes on to say:

Batasuna has denied being the political wing for Eta but has refused to condemn attacks by the group.

Last year, Mr Otegi called for peaceful dialogue between all sides to end decades of armed conflict, but he stopped short of making an explicit call for an Eta ceasefire.

Of course, such a punitive measure against a politician engaged in a process aimed at ending the violence caused some reactions among the few people that are consistent with what they champion, in this case, Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Sinn Fein, a political entity that is widely known as the IRA's political arm.

This is what UTV tells us:

Arnaldo Otegi was jailed after a judge said there was evidence of links between Eta and the Basatuna political group.

But Mr Adams warned the Spanish authorities that the process of criminalising Basque leaders would undermine efforts to rebuild the peace process there.

What Mr. Adams say makes sense, if what you really want is a peaceful resolution. Here you have some more:

"Yesterday`s decision to jail Basatuna leader Arnaldo Otegi is deeply concerning and will only serve to setback efforts to establish a peace process," he said.

"The policy of criminalisation and exclusion pursued by successive Spanish governments has been a failure and should be ended.

"It is our view that a real opportunity exists to make progress and last week`s vote in the Spanish parliament, and the outcome of the recent elections in the Basque country, are further evidence of that. This opportunity should be grasped."

Batsuna went ahead and called for a news conference in Donostia to condemn the jailing of their leader.

This is what Expatica tells us about it:

The banned Basque nationalist party Batasuna accused the Spanish government of being behind the detention of its spokesman.

Batasuna, which was outlawed for its links to ETA, called on supporters to demonstrate against the imprisonment.

Permach goes into more detail:

Permach, however, said the arrests would not change the party's proposal for a political solution to the decades-old conflict, including direct talks between the government and ETA.

"Today, Batasuna reiterates its commitment despite the imprisonment of Otegi. No external agent will be able to change the strategy of the independent left," he said.

So, now all we can do is wait and see.

Will the international community decry this episode?

Fat chance.

UPDATE: The author of HispaLibertas (who happens to be a Basque-phobe like the Barcepundit and the Trasatlantic Intelligencer) has dedicated an entire post to respond to this post of mine. If you wish to learn the way a Pro One Spain Under God clone thinks, go check it out, warning, the post is in Spanish.

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