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Europe

After decade in prison for supporting 9/11, Spaniard arrested for recruiting for ISIS

2017-10-26

[DailyMail] An Islamic convert who spent nearly a decade in prison after becoming the only Spaniard to be convicted over the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, has been tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! over his alleged links to ISIS. The 52-year-old, believed to be convicted Al Qaeda terrorist Luis Jose Galan Gonzalez, was held in Madrid on suspicion of 'recruiting, indoctrinating and training' new ISIS members. Spain's Interior Ministry did not name him in a statement confirming the detention and claiming he had encouraged others to commit terrorist acts. But they made his identity clear by describing him as 'the first person convicted in Spain over the terror attacks in New York on September 11' and revealing he had left prison in May 2011 after 'spending more than nine years in prison for membership or integration in a terrorist organization and illegal possession of firearms.' Madrid-born Gonzalez was interviewed by a local paper in Murcia, south east Spain, after leaving jail on May 9 2011 following nine and a half years behind bars for belonging to a terrorist organization and illegally possessing weapons. The convicted terrorist, 46 at the time and calling himself Yusuf Galan, was described then as the only Spaniard convicted over the Twin Towers attacks. The Interior Ministry said the suspect they had held had developed a 'sophisticated modus operandi' to try to disseminate information on the Internet without being caught. A front man said in a statement, where he referred to ISIS by its acronym DAESH: 'He collected an important amount of material which he housed simultaneously in several profiles or in instant messaging transmissions so he could reach the greatest number of people. 'He used the sort of language which is normal in these forums, commenting, linking and sharing content as part of DAESH's global strategy of using the Internet as a means of transmitting terrorist ideological values. 'Along with this ideological indoctrination, another fundamental pillar in his criminal strategy was to carry out operative training in combat techniques of other people. 'To do that he published videos in which he appeared using knives with great skill, alongside highly explicit messages, directed towards the commission of terrorist acts. 'He specifically focused on the psychological preparation of new recruits, who he prepared mentally so they would finally show their willing to commit terrorist acts.' Galan was one of 11 people arrested in November 2001 in connection with the New York attacks in an operation dubbed Datil - Date in Spanish. He was accused of belonging to Al Qaeda's Spanish network and travelling to Indonesia to receive military training. He was involved with far-left Basque nationalist political party Herri Batasuna before embracing Islam.

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Europe

Basque leader apologises to ETA victims in book

2012-09-17

[Al Ahram] The cooled for a few years ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... leader of the Basque independence movement, Arnaldo Otegi, apologises to victims of the bully boy separatist group ETA in a new book, according to extracts published Sunday. For the first time the leftwing independent leader offers "his most sincere apologies" for exacerbating the "pain and humiliation" of victims of ETA, which announced last year it had abandoned its armed struggle but has not formally disarmed or disbanded. Arnaldo Otegi was cooled for a few years ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... for six years in 2009 for attempting to reform Batasuna, the separatist party banned in 2003 and considered the political arm of ETA. In the book compiled from interviews, "El tiempo de las luces" ("The time of light"), which comes out on September 28, the Basque leader said he wanted to make amends, according to extracts published in the Gara newspaper. "If as front man (and I speak in the name of all spokesmen of Batasuna), I have added in any way to the pain, suffering or humiliation of the families of the victims of armed actions by ETA, I want to present here my most sincere apologies, accompanied by an 'I am sorry' from the heart," he wrote.

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Europe

Thousands rally to support disbarred Spanish judge

2012-02-13

MADRID: Thousands of people rallied Sunday in Spain’s capital in support of the disbarred judge famous for taking on international human rights cases. Baltasar Garzon, 56, was convicted Feb. 9 by the Supreme Court, marking a spectacular fall from grace for the nation’s most prominent jurist. The seven-judge panel disbarred him for 11 years, effectively ending Garzon’s career unless he can have their decision reversed on appeal. A large square outside the main gates of the Supreme Court filled with around 10,000 people, many carrying placards and banners calling for justice for the former judge and chanting, “Garzon, friend, Spain is with you.” In Thursday’s verdict, the court ruled that Garzon acted unlawfully in ordering jailhouse wiretaps of detainees talking to their lawyers, the court said, adding that his actions “these days are only found in totalitarian regimes.” The case was just one of three against Garzon, who is still awaiting a verdict in another trial on charges of initiating a probe in 2008 of rightist atrocities committed during and after the Spanish civil war of 1936-1939, even though the crimes were covered by a 1977 amnesty. Garzon is best known internationally for indicting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, and trying to put him on trial in Madrid for crimes against humanity. He also indicted Osama Bin Laden in 2003 over the Sept. 11 attacks and oversaw many rulings against Basque separatist group ETA and its political wing, Batasuna. As a judge at Spain’s National Court, Garzon took on cases using the principle of universal jurisdiction — the idea that some crimes are so heinous they can be prosecuted anywhere. He attempted to apply this legal doctrine to abuses committed in far-flung places like Rwanda and Tibet. Strangely, he never prosecuted the King Leopold over the Congo... Garzon was a hero to many left-leaning human rights activists, but was viewed with suspicion by conservative sectors of Spanish society, including many senior judges who saw him as attention seeking and egotistical. Garzon faces more legal woes over ties with a big Spanish bank that financed human rights seminars he oversaw while on sabbatical in New York in 2005 and 2006.

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Europe

ETA pushes for ceasefire recognition

2011-03-28

[Al Jazeera] Spain's armed Basque secessionist movement ETA has said it is willing to allow international observers to verify a ceasefire it declared earlier this year. A report in the Basque newspaper Gara on Sunday said that the group was "ready to accept an informal mechanism for verification". An ETA statement carried by the paper said that there were now two camps, that "of those who want to put in place a scenario of freedom", and that of "those who want to maintain force and stalemate". ETA declared a ceasefire on January 10, after more than 40 years of bloodshed, but the move was not accepted by the Spanish government. Many in Spain view ETA's ceasefire announcement as part of an attempt to get members of its banned political wing Batasuna included on electoral lists for local and regional elections due in May and the government was dismissive of ETA's latest overtures. Ramon Jauregui, a front man for the Spanish government, said that he was not sure what an "informal verification" meant. Last week Spain's top court rejected an application by Sortu, a new Basque pro-independence group, to form a political party so that it can stand in local elections in May. The Spanish government had asked the court to bar the group from electoral lists in municipal elections to be held in the Northern Basque country, arguing that it is a simple "extension" of Batasuna. Earlier in March, French police incarcerated four men in northern La Belle France on suspicion they were active ETA members, seizing arms, documents in the Basque language and computers in a raid. ETA announced a "permanent ceasefire" in March 2006 within the framework of negotiations with Madrid. But nine months later, it set off a bomb in the carpark of Madrid-Barajas airport, killing two men.

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Europe

ETA wing forming anti-violence party

2010-11-29

[Iran Press TV] The political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA has announced its plans for forming a new party that opposes violence and advocates democratic measures. The Batasuna association, which was banned in 2003 by Spain after a court ruling declared proven that the party was financing ETA , announced on Saturday that the "new project" will abide by a law that bans groups that "politically support violence and activities of terrorist groups." The new group "will reject the use of violence or the threat of its use to reach political objectives," said a text read out by the front man of the activists Rufi Etxeberria for news hounds in the northern city of Pamplona. "The commitment of this new project to exclusively political and democratic channels should be firm and unequivocal, and not subject to variable tactics or fluctuating factors," the text added. According to sources close to Batasuna, the group hopes that ETA will declare a permanent and verifiable ceasefire by the end of 2010. Last month, Spanish media reported that Batasuna would introduce itself on December 10 and hoped to run in municipal elections in May 2011. Top interior official for the autonomous Basque region, Rodolfo Ares, has expressed skepticism over Batasuna's intentions. Ares says Batasuna should have either convinced ETA to lay down its arms or separated itself from the group, if it wanted to become legal in the first place. In September, the ETA separatist group issued two declarations calling for an end to violence and an international mediation, both of which have been dismissed by the Spanish government as insufficient. The group has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during a four-decade campaign for an independent Basque state in northeastern Spain and southwestern France.

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Europe

Jailed leader calls for ETA ceasefire

2010-10-18

[Iran Press TV] The jailed top leader of the political wing of ETA has called on the Basque separatist group to declare a permanent ceasefire with the Spanish government. Arnaldo Otegi told Spain's El Pais daily in an interview published on Sunday that if he had the chance to address the ETA leadership, he would ask them to renounce violence and declare a "unilateral and permanent truce which can be verified by the international community," AFP reported. "There is no other path to independence other than those that follow the peaceful and democratic paths," he told El Pais. Otegi was sentenced to two years in prison in March for "glorifying" terrorism in remarks he made at a 2005 rally in memory of jailed ETA member Jose Maria Sagarduy. The political wing of ETA, known as Batasuna, was banned by the Spanish government in 2003. ETA is held responsible for nearly 830 deaths in a 41-year campaign to create an independent Basque Country in northern Spain and southwestern France. On September 5, the group said in a video message that it had decided to halt "armed offensive actions," but it did not mention whether the truce was temporary or permanent. The group has recently called on international mediators to help resolve the conflict and expressed readiness to disarm under the right conditions.

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Caribbean-Latin America

ETA leader arrested in Caracas international airport

2010-03-30

Officers with the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) arrested on Sunday an ETA leader at the Maiquetia International Airport, as he intended to enter Venezuela from Mexico. Marino Alvarado, coordinator of the Venezuelan Program on Education-Action in Human Rights (Provide), stated that the detainee's name is Walter Wendelin and is considered the representative of Batasuna>Batasuna, the political arm of the Basque terrorist organization ETA, for South America. Just for show or are they serious? Let's see if they let Spain extradite him. Wendelin, of German origin, is in the headquarters of the Sebin in Caracas. In December last year, in a press release, the Ministry of Information and Communication (Minci) reported that Walter Wendelin took part in an international forum on "Imperialist threats and people's resistance, moving forward towards the construction of an anti-empire front," at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, downtown Caracas.

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Europe

Basque politician freed from jail

2008-08-31

The former leader of the banned Batasuna party, which is considered the political wing of the armed separatist group Eta, has left prison after serving a 15-month sentence in Spain for offences related to "terrorism". Arnaldo Otegi, who called for negotiations with the government, was greeted by cheers and shouts of "free the Basque prisoners" as he left jail in the city of San Sebastian on Saturday. ''I came to this prison 15 months ago. For 15 months and for many years, there has been an unresolved political problem in this country - that problem continues to be real,'' Otegi said. "It has not been resolved and I consider this problem will only be resolved through dialogue and negotiation." He said he believes talks with the government could help end the separatist conflict in northern Spain.

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Europe

Spanish police arrest 14 Basque nationalists

2008-02-11

MADRID (Rooters) - Spanish police on Monday arrested at least 14 Basques suspected of trying to reorganize the separatist Batasuna party, which is banned because of its links to ETA rebels, a court spokesman said. Well-known Batasuna campaigner Karmelo Landa was among those held in the raids, which came as Spanish authorities are in the process of banning two small parties said to have been used as Batasuna fronts. Batasuna was banned in 2003 because of its links to ETA, which has killed more than 800 people since the 1960s in its fight for independence of the Basque Country, which covers parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. The Socialist government, facing elections on March 9, has been criticized by the opposition for its attempts to negotiate with ETA, but Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero now says the guerrillas must lay down their arms without conditions. Landa and the other suspects are believed to have been trying to form a new Batasuna governing council following the arrest of its former members in October. Police broke up a demonstration by Basque nationalists in Bilbao on Sunday, arresting several protesters. A police officer was injured in the disturbances, during which protesters smashed shop windows and set rubbish bins on fire. Polls show most Spanish Basques do not want independence, although the region's government, controlled by moderate nationalists, wants to hold a referendum-style vote on whether to begin talks about the Basque Country's relations with Madrid.

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Europe

Spanish government resists clamour to outlaw Basque radicals

2007-12-05

The government on Monday said it would not rush to outlaw a radical political party despite mounting demands from opposition politicians and victims of terrorism to strip Basque Nationalist Action (ANV) of its rights following the murder of a Spanish police officer in France on Saturday blamed on Basque terrorist group ETA. The ANV, which won support from Basque nationalist voters in local elections in May after it was endorsed by ETA's outlawed political wing Batasuna, has so far refused to condemn Saturday's attack in Capbreton, France. Undercover Civil Guard officer Raúl Centeno, 24, died in the shooting, while his partner, Fernando Trapero, 23, remains in a coma. They had been investigating ETA's activities in France in collaboration with French police. The government acknowledged that the ANV's failure to condemn the attack - the first killing by ETA in almost a year - "puts it in a worse situation today than it was yesterday." But it claimed that as yet there is insufficient evidence to make a case for outlawing the party. "It's an issue that is too important to rush into," Justice Minister Mariano Fernández Bermejo declared yesterday. "We have suspicions, but as soon as there is sufficient evidence - and not one moment before - we will seek the illegalisation of ANV." Police are thought to be compiling evidence against the Basque party, possibly with a view to seeking a court order to suspend the organisation in the run-up to the general election next March. That could pre-empt the illegalisation of the group. In the wake of Saturday's attack, Spain's main opposition Popular Party and the country's largest association of victims of terrorism, the AVT, have both intensified their demands for ANV to be outlawed and heightened their criticism of the Socialist government's counterterrorism policies. "There is more than enough evidence to outlaw the AVT," PP Secretary General Ángel Acebes declared. During a march in Madrid yesterday, a government representative, Pedro Zerolo, was insulted and Socialists in general were labelled "terrorists" by far-right protesters.

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Europe

Batasuna calls raid a 'declaration of war'

2007-10-07

A senior leader of Basque separatist group Batasuna has called the arrest of 23 key members a "declaration of war" by the Spanish government. Pernando Barrena is the only top leader still at liberty following a police raid on a party meeting on Thursday. Batasuna was banned in 2003 for failing to condemn violence and cut links to Eta, which has killed more than 800 people in a four-decade campaign. Eta called off a 15-month ceasefire earlier this year. The separatists want an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-western France. Mr Barrena told journalists at a press conference in the northern Basque city of San Sebastian that Thursday's arrests were "kidnappings". "This police operation uncovers the decision of the Spanish government, which is to issue a total declaration of war against Basque independence," Mr Barrena said. The Segura raid was on a secret executive committee meeting. "The repression will not make us back down," he said. Thursday's raid in the town of Segura was ordered by top anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon. He led the move four years ago to ban Batasuna. Mr Barrena said the raid on the secret executive committee meeting was because of Batasuna's hardline approach to peace talks. Judge Garzon is expected to question the detained members on Sunday. On Friday, hundreds of people protested in Basque towns and cities against the arrests. Thursday's operation was the latest in a four-month crackdown against Basque separatists that has included the arrest of Batasuna's leader, Arnaldo Otegi, on charges of "glorifying terrorism". Before Batasuna was banned in 2003, it represented about 15% of the people in the Basque region on local councils and in the regional government.

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Europe

ETA attack warning after election ban by court

2007-05-08

Another day, another threat from ETA Security sources warned of a possible attack by Basque separatist group ETA after candidates linked to the movement were banned by the Supreme Court. Hundreds of candidates were barred by the court because of their links to the terrorist organisation. ETA issued a statement warning last month against such a ban in the forthcoming local elections on 27 May. The group said it would “take the move very much into account”. Security sources warned this probably meant the Basque separatist organisation would launch another attack. Batasuna, the main Basque party linked to ETA, was declared illegal in 2003 for its links to the terrorist group.

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