The head of the Basque government and his chief opponent went on trial on Thursday over past contacts with the banned political wing of the armed separatist group ETA, just weeks before they are to face off in regional elections.
Juan Jose Ibarretxe, member of the governing Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), and Patxi Lopez, regional leader of Spain’s ruling Socialist Party, face possible prison terms and bans on political activity if found guilty.
But the two, along with another senior member of the Basque branch of the Socialist Party, Rodolfo Ares, who is also on trial, are not expected to be convicted as prosecutors have called for the charges against them to be dropped.
During the first session of the trial, prosecutor Maria Angeles Montes asked the court to shelve the affair based on a previous Supreme Court ruling that a trial can not be held if the accusation is not backed by either prosecutors or the direct victims of a crime.
But Ibarretxe’s lawyer, Mikel Casas, surprised the court with a request that the trial continue to the end to obtain a ruling that proves his client “was right.”
“We want to prove the innocence of the Lehendakari as well as that of the others. What they did, taking a step forward to search for peace, was fair and legitimate,” he told the court, using the Basque name for the head of the northern region’s government.
The court suspended the trial after the morning session to consider the request of prosecution lawyers. It will issue its decision on Monday.
The three politicians are accused of repeatedly meeting leaders of Batasuna — ETA’s political wing — during the failed bid by the government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to negotiate peace with the militant separatist group in 2006.
Batasuna has been outlawed since 2003 for refusing to condemn violence and cut its links to ETA, which has killed 825 people in a 40-year-old campaign for an independent Basque homeland.
Five senior Batasuna members, including veteran Arnaldo Otegi, are also on trial for disobeying the court order to disband.
All three politicians have admitted contacts with Batasuna, but as part of moves to push forward the peace process.
Ibarretxe last week announced regional elections for March 1, in which he is hoping to secure a fourth successive mandate.
But opinion polls indicate his PNV, which has governed the region since 1980, risks being defeated by the Socialists, led by Lopez.
The trial, which was originally expected to last three weeks, is the result of complaints filed by two associations opposed to talks with ETA, the Forum Ermua and Dignity and Justice.
Among witnesses expected to make statements at the trial are Zapatero, who could be asked to respond to questions from the court in writing, and his two predecessors, Jose Maria Aznar and Felipe Gonzalez.
Zapatero tried unsuccessfully to resolve the Basque problem in 2006. But he has taken a hard line against the separatists since ETA called off a 15-month-old ceasefire in June 2007 and has repeatedly ruled out any new negotiations.
All eight defendants — the three politicians and five Batasuna members — were in court on Thursday but did not take the stand.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS