By Tito Drago
MADRID, Dec 19 2007 (IPS)

A high court in Spain sentenced 14 leaders of political groups to prison Wednesday on the grounds that they also held positions of responsibility in the Basque separatist group ETA.

Since Judge Baltasar Garzón banned Batasuna, the political wing of ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna or Fatherland and Liberty in the Basque language), five years ago, it was replaced in its functions first by the Basque Communist Party (PCTV) and later by the Koordinatzaile Abertzale Sozialista (KAS), the Basque socialist coordinator.

The 14 political leaders and another 33 people found guilty of belonging to or collaborating with a “terrorist organisation” were sentenced to a combined total of more than 500 years in prison. Five other defendants were acquitted.

The convicted individuals included former KAS head Xavier Alegría, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison, and Txema Matanzas, both of whom where found guilty of being leaders of ETA’s political arm. Matanzas has also traditionally acted as defence lawyer for members of ETA.

The ruling read by the head of the court, Judge Angela Murillo, said the 47 convicted individuals formed part of the “heart” and “inner workings” of ETA, through KAS and other organisations like EKIN and XAKI.

The verdict was handed down shortly before Garzón’s five-year ban on meetings and demonstrations by Batasuna expires, on Jan. 17. Legal sources close to Judge Garzón told IPS that he is working on a legal decision that would extend the ban.

The political groups with ties to ETA have harshly criticised the trial and sentencing of the defendants. Protests held by the groups on Dec. 2 and Dec. 13 in cities in the Basque country, in northern Spain, drew up to 15,000 people.

Incidents similar to those that have broken out in earlier trials occurred in the courtroom Wednesday. When Judge Murillo began to read the sentence, the defendants, who were seated in a bullet-proof glass chamber in the court, stood with their fists in the air and sang the Basque independence song “Eusko Gudariak” (the Basque soldier’s hymn).

The head of the court ordered them to be silent. When they continued singing, she had the police remove them from the courtroom, while part of those attending the trial began to applaud the defendants and chanted “Long Live the Free Basque Country”, in Basque.

Many of the defendants, according to the verdict, formed part of business associations with links to ETA and offices in Cuba, Panama, France, Venezuela and Cape Verde, where they laundered money obtained in robberies, which was used to finance ETA activities within and outside of Spain.

Batasuna and the groups that replaced it have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights alleging that their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association have been infringed. The court announced that it would study the case.

The Court only accepts 1.5 percent of the cases brought before it, and in 80 percent of those cases, the Court has found infringements of the European Convention on Human Rights.

But Spanish sources close to the Court told IPS that they were confident that the judges would reject the case. Although the governing Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and the main opposition force, the conservative Popular Party (PP), back that eventual outcome, there are other democratic forces opposed to it.

Iñigo Urkullo, the new president of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which governs the Basque country, has spoken out against the banning of Batasuna and the parties that replaced it, arguing that “the social presence of the ‘abertzale’ (pro-independence) left is inevitable.”

He said they would be present in the meetings that the PNV has scheduled with all of the Basque country parties.

Moments before she was arrested for collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organisation, Abertzale leader Marije Fullaondo said the PNV would invite “the ‘abertzale’ left” to the meetings.

PSOE spokesman in the Basque country Rodolfo Ares confirmed that his party would attend the talks called by the PNV. But he said in a radio interview that it was a “terrible mistake” for representatives of Batasuna, an illegal party, to have been invited as well.

For the socialists, “the top priority today is putting an end to terrorism,” he stated.

“It is irresponsible, a terrible mistake (to invite Batasuna) because ETA has returned to its terrorist actions and all of the spokespersons of the ‘abertzale’ left continue to justify the terrorist violence,” said Ares.

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