Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Basque Country: Arrested before committing a crime

Basque Observatory of Human Rights | 22.01.2004 10:54 | Repression | Social Struggles | London | World

Preventive arrests, arrests with no legal basis
To date, 69 people have been arrested under this new concept

Following Audiencia Nacional judge Baltasar Garzon’s orders, the Spanish Policia Nacional arrested fourteen people in the Basque country on 19 and 19 November. They are all included within what the Home Office secretary Angel Acebes called “preventive arrests”, i.e. people are arrested not in order to determine their level of involvement in a given criminal activity, but in order to determine whether the crime has actually taken place. We are therefore talking about a stage prior to the commission of the crime.
After being held in police custody under incommunicado detention, in some cases for the maximum legal period of five days, they were taken before the judge in order to make their statements. After their appearance before the judge it was possible to ascertain that several of the detainees had suffered ill treatment during incommunicado detention.
The detainees’ lawyers then called a press conference where they denounced these events. These arrests are related to another two prior police operations in 2003, all of which are based upon a supposed list found in the possession of an alleged ETA activist. This list apparently includes the names of people who in the view of the armed organisation may be apt for recruitment. Therefore, they are not being accused of anything they have actually done, rather, the only reason for these arrests is that ETA believed these people to be adequate for future membership of the organisation. This amounts to criminalising a possible future event, “events that have not yet happened and of which there is no certainty they will actually happen”. The investigating judge, probably in order to try to reinforce his accusation, used arguments that do not constitute a crime in themselves, such as relating to Basque political prisoners, having stood for election for the political party Batasuna or having been members of other organisations that were later outlawed by the same judge. In this sense, the lawyers consider that there is no reason to impose the harshest preventive measure, i.e. remand in custody, upon the detainees. This measure “is becoming the rule, when it should be an exception”. They denounced these detainees having been sent to prison, as well as the previous arrest and imprisonment of other people for the same reason. Of the 69 people arrested in the so-called “preventive arrest” operations, 38 are in jail and 31 are free. Added to this, 21 of the detainees claimed having suffered ill treatment during incommunicado detention in police quarters.

The detainees and their current situation
In jail
Zuhaitz Gurrutxaga
Saioa Azua
Gaizka Azkarate
Ikerne Indakoetxea
Goizeder Anton
Eneko Gorostidi
Xabier Otaegi
Mikel Garaiondo
Maider Egiguren
Regina Maiztegi

Released on bail
Ruben Guelbenzu
Gaizka Garcia

Released without charges
David Brum
Enekoitz Oiartzabal

Basque Observatory of Human Rights
- e-mail: info@behatokia.info
- Homepage: http://www.beahtokia.info

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech