A very special court hearing in Madrid
Teresa Toda reports on the opening of a trial which could see the
entire National Executive of Herri Batasuna sent to prison
The three Magistrates of Section II of the Spanish Supreme Court
were stunned last Monday morning as the first session of the
hearing against the leadership of the Basque independence party
Herri Batasuna (HB) began. HB's defence lawyers told the court
that the president of the tribunal was ``contaminated'' and could
not be a fair judge.
The Spanish magistrates, politicians, high-ranking police
officers and media could have expected anything but that. Herri
Batasuna rejected judge José Augusto de Vega because his
daughter, a policewoman, has recently been assigned to the
department of Ricardo Martin Fluxa, number 2 in the Ministry of
the Interior. She was specially and personally picked out for the
job by the leading member of the Ministry.
Mr De Vega's daughter still lives at the family home, and HB
pointed out that because of such a close family relationship, De
Vega had ``personal interests'' in the outcome of the trial.
After an emergency meeting, the Supreme Court threw out HB's
objections, and the trial will continue next Monday.
Nevertheless, the incident shows how special this trial is and
how political.
Herri Batasuna's leadership, the Mesa Nacional (National Table),
has 23 members. All have been charged with ``collaboration with an
armed band'', a very broad charge which can take in everything, or
nothing.
Although it has been the conservative government of José Maria
Asner that has finally taken HB to court, the proceedings were
begun under the socialist government of Felipe González in
February 1996. The basis for legal proceedings was a video-tape
in which three masked members of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the
Basque independence armed organisation, explained in simple words
the contents of their Alternativa Democratica (Democratic
Alternative), a proposal for a peace process for the Basque
Country, not a call to arms. The Alternative had been made public
by ETA in April 1995, but in 96 the video-tape was being used to
spread it over Euskai Herria (the Basque Country) and as a means
of opening up debate in villages, towns, universities, and so on.
Herri Batasuna wanted to include it in its TV spot during the
general election campaign, and that triggered off an absurd
persecution.
The Audiencia Nacional (equivalent of the Diplock Courts in the
Six Counties) issued warrants forbidding screenings of the tape
and sent Spanish police, Guardia Civil and Ertzaina (Basque
version of the RUC, ``native'' Basque police) after the tape. Some
incidents had a touch of humour, as in Navarra, where a very
right-wing politician, Jaime Ignacio Del Burgo, rang the police
to say that he knew the tape was to be shown in a certain bar on
a certain night. The police dutifully went at the stated hour and
found themselves in the middle of a Carnival-night supper, in a
place where there wasn't even a video machine...
Not all events were so humorous, of course. Cops laid their hands
on some videos, but in any case there was nothing ``underground''
about the screenings, which were publicly advertised by HB. The
weirdest thing about it all is that by the time the Audiencia
Nacional (prompted by the Spanish government of Felipe Gonzalez)
declared war on the tape, there had been over 200 public
screenings of it, and nothing had happened, apart from the fact
that more Basques had direct knowledge of its contents and
viewpoints.
In February 1996 there were general elections, and ETA had shot
Francisco Tomás y Valiente, who had been one of the men (all men)
who drew up the Spanish Constitution in 1978, and Fernando
Múgica, a member of the Socialist party (PSOE) in the Basque
Country and brother of the ex-minister of Justice Enrique Mugica,
who pushed the policy of dispersion of Basque political prisoners
throughout the gaols of the Spanish State. So things were pretty
hot, and besides, PSOE's opponents, the conservative PP, was
laying on thick the ``we would be tough on them'' card. PSOE had to
be toughest.
Elections came, elections went, and PP took power. Things seemed
to stall for a time, but in September 1996 the Supreme Court
decided to try the whole of the Mesa Nacional for collaborating
with ETA by ``lending'' the armed organisation part of HB's
electoral TV time, as well as for HB's communiqués after Tomás y
Valiente's and Múgica's deaths, which the Court deems contain an
``apology for terrorism'', an even wider and more nondescript
charge than ``collaboration''.
The Mesa Nacional was called up by the Supreme Court in February
97 to be notified formally of the accusations, but all 23 said
they would not voluntarily appear in a Spanish Court. So, one by
one, they were arrested and taken to court by the police, and
from there to jail, which they left in May 1997 after the Court
had reduced bail to a ``reasonable'' amount.
The trial was finally set for 6 October.
But it is far from being a normal or a fair trial. From Prime
Minister Aznar down, almost all members of the Spanish government
have expressed their confidence that the Court will impose a
fairly long jail sentence on the Mesa Nacional (the prosecutor
demands from 6 to 22 years). Opposition spokespersons have
expressed similar ``hopes''. After last summer's hullabaloo after
the abduction and death of councillor Miguel Angel Blanco,
pressure has been mounting against HB (and, it must be said,
against Basque nationalism in general). The Spanish mass media
are really in hysterics over it, and HB militants are presented
as bloodthirsty brainless monsters, devoid of all political
reason, or ideals.
So, the government is constantly saying that judges must respond
to ``social feeling'' on the matter - and that ``social sensibility''
is reflected in the now famous cry of ``let's go for them!'' It was
the cry which rang out in Madrid in a big demonstration against
ETA and HB after Blanco's death, and which in fact gives carte
blanche to media, politicians, so-called intellectuals, and so
forth, against ETA and HB, and even allows deaths such as that of
two ETA members three weeks ago in Bilbao - shot by the Civil
Guard in an ambush - to go unquestioned. Even the official
version had contradictions, but all parties bound by the
``anti-terrorist pacts'' took the official line. No questions
asked.
In that climate, paradoxically enough, press and politicians
turned on HB spokesman Karmela Landa last Sunday for saying in a
meeting that ``judges don't know what we will be doing'' and ``will
find themselves faced with surprises''. The usual choir said that
Landa was ``pressing'' judges and almost threatening them.
Political trial
Herri Batasuna has said over and over again that this is a
political trial. Demonstrations in the main cities of the Basque
Country underlined this fact over the last weekend. HB has been
campaigning long and hard against the trial. From international
contacts to explain what is happening and what are the real
contents of the famous videotape, to local meetings and actions
in villages and different institutions. The main Basque parties -
PNV and EA - are not at all comfortable with the trial, but they
have done nothing against it; moreover, they even instructed
their councillors and elected representatives not to second
motions presented by HB against the trial. Nevertheless, PNV
spokespersons did say that, in their view, the Spanish government
was ``electrifying the air'' around the trial by stressing that the
outcome should be jail sentences, and denounced ``pressure'' on the
judges from the government side.
opinion poll published last Sunday by EGIN gave an idea of how
this trial is seen by the Basque people. Only 30% think it is
``just'' to try HB; 35% think it isn't, and 35% ``don't know''. A
meagre 21% think the Court will be ``impartial''; 47% think it
won't be, and 32% don't know. Finally, 55% ``don't know'' what
would be a just sentence, 25% think the Mesa Nacional should be
absolved and 19% prefer to see them sentenced.
It really is a very special trial. HB spokesperson Floren Aoiz
said last Sunday that it is a ``big test'' for the future of the
conflict between the Spanish state and the Basque Country. ``It
will be a test to know if there are going to be more steps
towards an intensification of the conflict or, if, on the other
hand, as in Ireland, there is going to be a search for mechanisms
of solution. No doubt a jail sentence would complicate the scene;
it would introduce new elements of tension, and, above all, it
would give more reasons to those who think there are no peaceful
democratic channels to defend certain ideas, such as
independence''.
Teresa Toda is International editor of EGIN, the Basque left
wing daily newspaper
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