European Court of Human Rights supports Spanish Government over ETA/Batasuna

European Court of Human Rights supports Spanish Government over ETA/Batasuna
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By h.b. - Jun 30, 2009 - 6:48 PM
The court supports the declaration of the political wing Batasuna as an illegal organisation

The state of the car after the crash - EFE

The decision of the Spanish Government to declare Batasuna, the political wing of Basque Terrorists ETA, as an illegal organisation has been supported by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The court has accepted the Government’s contention that it was declared illegal for reasons of ‘public security’, and hence the court has rejected the appeal made to it against illegalisation by Batasuna in March 2003. It complicates the presentation of any more election candidate lists by ‘abertzale’ ETA supporters.

The Spanish Government has welcomed the decision, with the Secretary of State for the E.U., Diego López Garrido, saying that is a guarantee that Spain is a State where human rights are respected.

Minister for the Interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, said he was ‘very satisfied’ with the judicial decision and defended the objective of the law to ‘strengthen democracy’.

The leader of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, also welcomed the decision from Stasbourg and said that is showed the unity against ETA ‘because the terrorists must not be in the democratic institutions’.

Meanwhile, two ETA terrorists, a man and a woman, have been arrested in SE France after being involved in a traffic accident. It happened at Chateau-Gontier in the Mayenne region. The man is reported to be in a serious condition after the crash. His identity is reportedly still under investigation, but the woman is said to be Ohiana Mardanas. She has no police or judicial record, but is known to be part of the pro-ETA left. The two were armed at the time of the accident in a car which had been stolen, and the woman confessed to the medical services that they were members of the Basque terrorist group.

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