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Spanish Anarchists Arrested On Terrorism Charges

x | 19.09.2003 13:40 | Repression | Terror War | World

Spanish anarchists arrested under anti-terrorism laws in Barcelona.

Around 4 AM of Tuesday september 16th, the "Guardia Civil" (one of Spain´s police forces) arrested 6 people in Barcelona´s Ciutat Vella neighborhood and Horta-Guinardo district. Counterterrorist Legislation has been applied to them, so they are isolated and without legal assistance of their confidence, by the Guardia Civil, waiting to be driven to the Audiencia Nacional, in Madrid. It´ll be at court of first instance number 1 of the Audiencia Nacional, which is under jurisdiction of Judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanco, sadly remembered for his participation in many police actions against anarchists. Right now it´s almost sure they´re in Madrid, but according to Counterterrorist legislation they can be kept up to 5 days before they enter the court.

The arrested individuals are Carolina F. R. y Rafael T. G. (of Tarragona), Joaquin G.V. (neighbor of Jaca, in Huesca´s province), Igor Q.A (neighbor of Arrasate, Guipuzkoa´s province); Teodoro H.M.(neigbor of Arnedo, La Rioja´s province) and Roger G.P. (of Barcelona)

The Home Office version presents us the arrested people as "a clandestine anarchist group" and tries to link them with a envolope-bomb sent to the greek embassy in Madrid, and deactivated by police, and also with many savotage actions referred by police as "Urban terrorism". According to this version, the sending of this package should be a protest action done due to greek police´s repression in the last Tessaloniki meeting and because two spanish citizens are still in prison in Greece. They´re also been charged with firearms possession.

Only some hours laters, mass-medias have been spreading the police´s justification of these arrests, and qualifying the police operation as "Counterterrorist operation" in a totally non-critical way, and forgetting about some of their "code of practice" articles.

The new government delegate to Catalonia´s autonomous comunity, Susana Bouis, which seems to follow the steps of her predecessor, Julia Garcia-Valdecasas, didn´t told her version until late in the afternoon, just so television could air her statements and show images of objects confiscated by police. Surprisingly they even showed images of the detentions hold just a few hours before. The Home Office Minister, Angel Acebes, has added himself to the show on september´s 17th morning to tell us the different confiscated objects found at the arrested´s homes, and some other more or less delirious versions. Home office-journalists coordinations has once again proved very efficient.

At tuesday´s afternoon a solidarity concentration took place in Barcelona, and many other demonstration and fund-raising actions are being prepared at many spanish locations.

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  1. This is what happens ... — Cat