Monday, July 07, 2003

The Josu Lariz Case

As you may know by now, Spain is trying to export its repressive strategy against the Basque people all over the world. Well, according to this report by Behatokia seems like for once, they've failed:

ARGENTINE JUDGE REFUSES TO EXTRADITE JOSU LARIZ IRIONDO

On 17 June 2004, Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio refused extradition for José Lariz Iriondo, a Basque political exile being held in Argentina. After depositing bail of 10,000 Argentine pesos, Josu regained his freedom provisionally, as there is the possibility that the prosecutor will appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice.

The extradition request made by the Spanish authorities was based upon events that took place at the beginning of the eighties and which, as was proven in the trial had prescribed. Nevertheless, the proceedings turned into a trial of the Spanish state and the lack of guarantees for Basque citizens linked in various ways to the Basque political conflict. The testimonies given by the witnesses for the defence, people with widely acknowledged prestige, were especially relevant. They denounced the conditions in which Basque political prisoners live in Spanish jails, as well as the rights violations being suffered by the Basque people. Among these witnesses, we could underline the Argentine Nobel Peace Prize, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; the president of the American Jurist Association, Beniusz Smucler; the Chief Editor of Resumen Latinoamericano, Carlos Aznarez; and Herman Schiller, from the Jewish Movement for Human Rights. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture sent a letter to the court in order to explain his appraisal of the situation of torture in the Spanish state.

Josu is currently trying to regularise his personal situation in Argentina and to obtain political refuge.

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