Guilty Even When Not

For decades Madrid has followed a simple yet perverse policy against the Basque society.

They accuse anyone working in behalf of the Basque self determination of being part of something they call the entorno.

A literal translation of entorno would be environment or surroundings.

Meaning, anything and everything Basque is part of ETA, since they are Basque.

I could come up with quite a few similar comparisons if I wanted.

A few years back, from the hand of clown Judge Garzon, Madrid started a process against a number of Basque youth organizations; Jarrai, Haika and Segi. These organizations were aimed at providing the Basque youth with projects and spaces in which they could express themselves, something sorely needed to curb the increased use of drugs among youngsters.

Since these groups supported the right to self determination and (gasp!) independence, they were branded as part of ETA.

Yesterday Spain's highest court, the Audiencia Nacional, ruled these groups are not part of ETA:

Spain's highest court has ruled a youth organisation with links to ETA was not a terrorist group and ondemned 24 members of Segi to light sentences.

They were given jail terms of between two and three-and-a-half years for belonging to an illegal organisation.

Four other accused escaped any sentence.

Yes, you read that right, even after ruling that they were not part of ETA, they still were handed sentences, go figure that one out.

But notice the language Expatica uses: "Four other accused escaped any sentences".

These four others spent years in jail awaiting a resolution of their case, they were found non guilty, yet for Expatica, they escaped any sentences, as if they deserved them but got away without them.

Which comes to show that for the Spanish media, the Basques are not only guilty until proven innocent, they are guilty even when innocent.

What about the years spent in jail just to be proven innocent?

At least there is a sentence in the article that provides a little measure of hope:

The Audiciencia Nacional said only ETA can be defined in law as a terrorist organisation as it used arms.

So, there you go, Ikastolas are not terrorist organizations, Basque media outlets are not terrorist organizations, Basque unions and political parties are not terrorist organizations, hopefully someone will pay attention to the Audiencia Nacional.

Berria provides more info:

The most significant aspect, however, is the crime the Court has found them guilty or not guilty of. The case had been built on Judge Baltasar Garzon’s assertions that as the indictees were the leaders of the youth organisations, they were therefore ETA members. The Prosecutor Enrique Molina also deliberately stuck to this hypothesis during the trials. The Prosecutor embarked on the trial pressing for convictions of up to fourteen years for 33 of the indictees. In the final report he was pressing for ten-year sentences for 28 of the indictees. The charges against the other five were dropped after admitting there was insufficient proof for convicting them.

* The article cited here was originally published by Anti-Basque outlet Expatica, you can also read it at Artxiboak.

UPDATE: The blog Oread Daily has a very compelling post regarding this issue, it is called Basque Youth Face Repression:

The trial was merely the latest in the assault on the Basque Nationalist Left. For several years now newspapers, political parties, radio stations, cultural associations, and schools have been shut down by the Spanish state, while hundreds have been jailed, thousands driven into exile, and millions of Euros worth of assets seized. Always Spain claims the targets are members of ETA and therefore terrorists.

Many of those charged and/or convicted are held far away from their homes, sometimes on the Canary Islands, so that visits are difficult.

Revolution reports that Basque prisoners are commonly tortured. Spanish law allows prisoners suspected of terrorism to be held five days with no outside communication or lawyer. Reports of beatings, electric shock, suffocation with plastic bags, threats of rape and the like are common. Revolution says, “The number of incidents reported, including cases of attempted suicide by prisoners, has led even the United Nations to recognize that the Spanish government is violating the conditions it agreed to in the Convention against Torture.”

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