A trial in Spain of 35 members of Batasuna, the banned political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, was suspended Monday after three of their six lawyers were arrested.
"The trial was suspended, because of the detention of three comrades," one of Batasuna's defence lawyers Jone Goirizelaia, who was not arrested in a series of police raids on Monday morning, told AFP.
Thirty-five suspected members of Batasuna were due to go on trial in Madrid accused of carrying out political activities to back ETA, which is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in a four-decade campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France.
Two French nationals, Aurore Martin and Haizpea Abrisqueta, are among the accused along with veteran Basque independence leaders such as Juan Jose Petrikorena.
Just before the trial was due to start police detained 16 people, including 12 lawyers who are part of a so-called ETA "prisoners collective," in raids in Madrid, the northern Basque Country and Navarra.
Among those detained were three of the lawyers representing the suspected Batasuna members.
The 16 people arrested are accused of acting as messengers between ETA and the hundreds of members of the group serving sentences in Spanish jails.
The operation has led to the "virtual disappearance of the structure used by ETA to maintain the prisoners under its orders," the interior ministry said in a statement.
"They were actively involved in ideological indoctrination and continuously informed the leaders of the group about the personal and legal situation and the commitment of, the prisoners," it added.
The 16 bbeing held are accused of membership of a terrorist organisation.
The 12 lawyers are also accused of money laundering and tax fraud for allegedly not having declared 1.3 million euros ($1.5 million) to the tax office in 2012 and 2013.
The money was allegedly received from the armed Basque group Herrira, whose activities have been suspended by a Spanish court, in exchange for legal assistance which they provided.
- 'No room for impunity' -
Interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said the operation showed Spain "will pursue all types of terrorism and all terrorists, all the time."
There is no room for impunity, and "anyone who has had any sort of ties with ETA and have committed a crime will be brought to justice," he added.
Martin, one of the two French nationals facing trial, said she and 18 others accused have been left without a lawyer as a result of the arrests.
"It is a violation of our rights, it's incomprehensible, it's Kafkaesque," she told AFP at the court.
"This trial is a scandal... and they have taken away our right to a defence."
"They order us to go to Madrid to justify ourselves before the High Court and they arrest our lawyers at the same time," she added later on in Bayonne in southwestern France where a protest is scheduled.
Batasuna was banned in 2003 because it refused to condemn violence by ETA. It was the first time since the death in 1975 of dictator General Francisco Franco that a political party was been banned in Spain.
ETA -- or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which means Basque Homeland and Freedom in Basque -- in October 2011 declared a "definitive end to armed activity" but it has not formally disarmed nor disbanded as the Spanish and French governments demand.
The Spanish government refuses to negotiate with ETA, which has been severely weakened in recent years by hundreds of arrests as well as a decline in political and social support in the Basque Country.
ETA's last deadly attack in Spain was a July 2009 car bomb that killed two policemen on the island of Majorca.
A trial in Spain of 35 members of Batasuna, the banned political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, was suspended Monday after three of their six lawyers were arrested.
“The trial was suspended, because of the detention of three comrades,” one of Batasuna’s defence lawyers Jone Goirizelaia, who was not arrested in a series of police raids on Monday morning, told AFP.
Thirty-five suspected members of Batasuna were due to go on trial in Madrid accused of carrying out political activities to back ETA, which is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in a four-decade campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France.
Two French nationals, Aurore Martin and Haizpea Abrisqueta, are among the accused along with veteran Basque independence leaders such as Juan Jose Petrikorena.
Just before the trial was due to start police detained 16 people, including 12 lawyers who are part of a so-called ETA “prisoners collective,” in raids in Madrid, the northern Basque Country and Navarra.
Among those detained were three of the lawyers representing the suspected Batasuna members.
The 16 people arrested are accused of acting as messengers between ETA and the hundreds of members of the group serving sentences in Spanish jails.
The operation has led to the “virtual disappearance of the structure used by ETA to maintain the prisoners under its orders,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
“They were actively involved in ideological indoctrination and continuously informed the leaders of the group about the personal and legal situation and the commitment of, the prisoners,” it added.
The 16 bbeing held are accused of membership of a terrorist organisation.
The 12 lawyers are also accused of money laundering and tax fraud for allegedly not having declared 1.3 million euros ($1.5 million) to the tax office in 2012 and 2013.
The money was allegedly received from the armed Basque group Herrira, whose activities have been suspended by a Spanish court, in exchange for legal assistance which they provided.
– ‘No room for impunity’ –
Interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said the operation showed Spain “will pursue all types of terrorism and all terrorists, all the time.”
There is no room for impunity, and “anyone who has had any sort of ties with ETA and have committed a crime will be brought to justice,” he added.
Martin, one of the two French nationals facing trial, said she and 18 others accused have been left without a lawyer as a result of the arrests.
“It is a violation of our rights, it’s incomprehensible, it’s Kafkaesque,” she told AFP at the court.
“This trial is a scandal… and they have taken away our right to a defence.”
“They order us to go to Madrid to justify ourselves before the High Court and they arrest our lawyers at the same time,” she added later on in Bayonne in southwestern France where a protest is scheduled.
Batasuna was banned in 2003 because it refused to condemn violence by ETA. It was the first time since the death in 1975 of dictator General Francisco Franco that a political party was been banned in Spain.
ETA — or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which means Basque Homeland and Freedom in Basque — in October 2011 declared a “definitive end to armed activity” but it has not formally disarmed nor disbanded as the Spanish and French governments demand.
The Spanish government refuses to negotiate with ETA, which has been severely weakened in recent years by hundreds of arrests as well as a decline in political and social support in the Basque Country.
ETA’s last deadly attack in Spain was a July 2009 car bomb that killed two policemen on the island of Majorca.
