Morning Star
Basque Masses March Over Separatist Seven’s Detention James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 18 May 2015 Thousands marched in the Basque Country yesterday against the imprisonment of seven young independence campaigners. The Herri Harresia, or Human Wall, protest in regional capital Vitoria-Gasteiz came a day after Spanish President Mariano Rajoy visited the city. Campaigners Marina Sagastinabal, Bergoi Madernaz, Aiala Zaldibar, Igarki Robles, Ainhoa Villaverde, Xabat Moran and Ibon Esteban were convicted of membership of banned Basque separatist party Segi earlier this month. But the court ordered their arrest before they or their lawyers had even been informed of the verdict. Four were arrested immediately but three more escaped. They announced that they would be in Vitoria-Gasteiz yesterday, where protesters wore orange clothes and paper masks along with colourful fright wigs to disguise their identities. By mid-afternoon police had begun detaining protesters one by one in an attempt to identify and arrest the wanted three. Most of the seven had been arrested in 2010 and spent up to 18 months in jail on remand and had to pay bail of up to €30,000 (£22,000). Five of them alleged torture at the hands of the police, claims which were backed up my medical examinations in line with the Istanbul Protocol — international guidelines on investigating degrading treatment. Segi was banned in 2002 by judge Baltasar Garzon on the grounds that it was linked to Basque terrorist group Eta. Eta was founded in 1959 during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, but the roots of Basque nationalism in Spain go back to the 19th century. From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-e31b-Basque-masses-march-over-separatist-sevens-detention#.VVoRx_mqqkq -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
