The general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, poses at the party's headquarters in San Sebastián with Arkaitz Rodríguez, Miren Zabaleta and Rafa Díez Usabiaga, convicted for the 'Bateragune case'.Javier Etxezarreta (EFE)
The general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, stated this Thursday that the
Bateragune case
,
about the attempted reconstruction of the outlawed Batasuna in 2009, is “the story of a
lawfare
against the Basque independence movement” that was orchestrated by the powers of the State with the “intention,” he said, “to prevent [ETA's] armed violence from disappearing from the political equation.”
Otegi, who served a sentence of six and a half years in prison imposed by the Supreme Court in 2012 for this summary, has celebrated the decision of the Constitutional Court not to repeat the trial and to definitively close this judicial process that, in his opinion, He also intended to prevent the change of strategy of the
nationalist
left and “remove from circulation” those who, he said, were “working” for the end of terrorist violence.
“It is the story of a resounding failure,” he stated.
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“We are happy because we are not used to the Spanish justice system agreeing with us,” Otegi began by saying in an appearance at the EH Bildu headquarters in San Sebastián accompanied by Arkaitz Rodríguez, Rafa Díez Usabiaga and Miren Zabaleta, convicted along with Sonia. Jacinto (he was unable to attend due to a “domestic accident” without serious consequences) for the attempt to rebuild the outlawed Batasuna following orders from ETA.
The sovereigntist leader has regretted that the courts have taken 15 years to resolve this case, for which they had to spend more than six years in prison.
The Constitutional Court has decided, by seven votes against four, that a new trial not be held again in the
Bateragune case
, whose sentences were annulled in 2018 by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) considering that the trial in the first instance, in the National Court, in 2011, had been held without guarantees of impartiality.
Given this Strasbourg resolution, the Supreme Court agreed in 2020 to repeat the initial hearing in the National Court to judge the merits of the matter.
Otegi and the rest of the convicts appealed this decision of the Supreme Court - and the Constitutional Court has now agreed with them - alleging that they have already served the prison and disqualification sentences imposed on them.
Bateragune, according to Otegi, is the chronicle of “15 years of political persecution and
lawfare
[judicial harassment for political purposes].”
He has used this controversial concept now used by the Catalan independence movement to insist that the nationalist left
has
been a victim of this strategy "for a long time" and has manifested itself in "the dirty war, torture, the closure of newspapers, unjust imprisonments ...”.
Otegi has assured that behind this strategy was “the State's attempt to prevent armed violence from disappearing from the political equation.”
“That's why they tried to remove those of us who were working from circulation so that that wouldn't happen,” he added.
Furthermore, he has criticized that it was an action that sought to "cause disorders and splits within the Basque national liberation movement" with the aim of "neutralizing the political potential of the independence movement."
However, the result has not been what was intended because, as Otegi recalled, “the pro-independence left is the first municipalist force” in the entire Basque Country, Navarra and the French Basque Country.
Otegi has considered that it is “the time” to realize that “the independence movements cannot be neutralized in undemocratic terms” and it is necessary to seek “a democratic solution to the national problems of the State”, which in his opinion is happening. for “recognizing the plurinational character” of Spain and “respecting what the citizens of each nation decide.”
Finally, he recalled that in 2021 the nationalist left
made
public the so-called Declaration of October 18, in which it recognized its responsibility for part of the suffering caused by ETA to the victims and stated that “it should never have happened.”
Otegi has asked the State to carry out the exercise of “recognizing the multiple sufferings” that it has caused with “the dirty war and
lawfare
” in Euskadi.
“We ask for it not as a reproach or so that it has criminal consequences, but to lay the foundations for a fair, true and lasting coexistence in this country,” he stated.
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