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This information was published at Pacific Free Press:

Ivan Apaolaza Sacho: Still in Jail

by The Freedom for Ivan Committee

In Montreal, Ivan Apaolaza Sancho - a 36 year old Basque refugee claimant and political prisoner - has been in detention for over ten months.

Ivan is accused of having been a member of the ETA (an armed nationalist Basque organization); an accusation that he denies. He has been detained at Rivière des prairies Detention Centre since June 2007 and faces deportation solely on the basis of accusations made by the Spanish state; no actual evidence to support the allegations has been presented.

Moreover, the allegations themselves seem to come from a confession obtained under torture (see below). If the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) Commissioner accepts those allegations, Ivan faces deportation to Spain where he expects further arbitrary detention and possible torture.

Update from the Freedom for Ivan Committee

Ivan is one of hundreds of Basque political prisoners, held at the behest of the Spanish state, often with the complicity of other states like Canada.

For centuries, the Spanish state has inflicted intense and cruel repression on the Basque left-sovereignist movement (which enjoys broad support in Basque society). Today, following in Franco's footsteps, the state continues to use political repression as it attempts to dismantle the Basque movement's base of social support.

Of the 18,721 people arrested in Basque country for political reasons between 1977 and 2002, 9200 people served jail time, 5300 people reported having been tortured, and 9 people were murdered during police interrogations.

On 24 March, the newly formed Freedom for Ivan committee organized a press conference in Montreal to publish evidence indicating that all of the allegations against Ivan originate from the "confession" a Basque woman made under torture while she was held incommunicado by Spanish police.

Ivan's committee and lawyers called on Stockwell Day to immediately release Ivan and cease Canadian complicity in torture.

The following day, Ivan's lawyers argued in an IRB hearing that the case against Ivan should be thrown out for lack of evidence and because there are reasonable grounds to believe that the allegations are based on information obtained under torture, which is inadmissable under Canadian law.

French legal expert Didier Rouget testified that Canada could also be breaking international law if it deported Ivan on that basis. The hearing will resume on 25 April.

In the meantime, Ivan underwent another routine detention review. Just two days before Political Prisoner day, the IRB Commissioner had another opportunity to cease participating in torture and repression - but refused.

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