Regarding the King's Slander

Thanks to Feedster I got a hold of this analysis regarding the indictment against Arnaldo Otegi at a blog called Disidente on a post titled "Constitutional Monarchy".

Spain's Supreme Court has just sentenced Basque nationalist leader Arnaldo Ortegi (right) to a year in jail for insulting the King of Spain. Ortegi's crime was to describe Juan Carlos I as "responsible for the torturers".

Given that Amnesty International, and several other international human rights organizations, having conducted numerous thorough investigations into allegations of human rights abuses committed against Basque detainees by the Spanish military and police, has repeatedly concluded that there are grounds for disquiet, together with the number of members of the security services convicted of torture (and then rapidly pardoned by successive governments), Ortegi's accusation seems to be well-founded. Ortegi's original comments, February 26, 2003, consisted of saying that, "the Spanish king is the maximum head of the Spanish army; that is to say, the person responsible for the torturers who condones torture and who imposes his monarchical regime on our people by means of torture and violence."

Two things immediately occur to me: the Spanish Constitution of 1978 guarantees the right to free expression and King Juan Carlos I is indeed the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Armed Forces.

But also...

Ortegi is the leader of the banned nationalist organization Herri Batasuna. The judge responsible for the prohibition of that organization, Baltasar Garzón, is the key note speaker at a conference on the subject of torture to be held at NYU on November 14.

One of the many ironies of all this is that while birthplace often brings with it a guarantee of nationality, Juan Carlos de Borbón - representative par excellence of Spanishness - was not born in Spain, whereas Ortegi was.

Nice to find out the Baltasar Garzón will spreading his corrupt concept of justice and his lies about torture at NYU next week. Time to contact the media regarding that.

One thing though, Otegi was born in Euskal Herria, not in Spain. Devil is in the details.

.... ... .