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: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Spain court begins trial for Basque leaders accused of meeting with banned party

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

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[JURIST] A Spanish court on Thursday began the trial of three Basque leaders accused of meeting illegally with members of the Batasuna party to negotiate a ceasefire with the illegal Basque separatist group ETA. Basque President Juan Jose Ibarretxe and two senior members of the Basque branch of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's party met with Batasuna party members in July and April 2006 and in January 2007. They were charged in connection with the meetings in October 2007. The trial will proceed despite prosecutors' calls for the charges to be dropped, and the men are not expected to be convicted. Ibarretxe has said that he welcomes the trial as an opportunity to prove his innocence. The Batasuna party is alleged to be a front for ETA, which has been blamed for more than 800 deaths in bombings and attacks since the 1960s. Spain's Supreme Court declared Batasuna illegal in 2003. In September, the court banned the Basque Nationalist Action Party (ANV) from taking part in political activities because of its alleged ties to Batasuna.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).