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Spain on trial in the European Human Rights Tribunal

melic | 21.11.2003 16:10

Spain on trial accused of tortures in the Human Rights Tribunal

On the 18th November will take place a trial in the European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg (France). This is a hearing about the accusations made by thirteen people arrested before the Olympic Games of 1992, and who were subjected to brutal tortures by the Spanish police.

This trial where Spain will be the accused is being silenced by the Spanish media. It is very important for everyone and the right to justice and truth to find out what happened.
In 1992 during the months of June and July more than 50 Catalonians were arrested under order of the notorious judge Baltasar Garzón, under suspicion of being members of the separatist group “Terra Lliure” (Free Land). This operation, known as “Operation Garzón”, and with the cover and complicity of the Spanish government, in those years under the presidency of Felipe González, and the silence of most of the Spanish political parties, was intended to make quite the separatist movement during the Olympic Games, so that the World would never know about the Catalan nation and her aspiration to freedom and self-determination.
Most of those arrested were moved to Madrid, and there the Spanish police and Civil Guard subjected them to tortures, humiliations and other offences against their human dignity.
Out of 50 people arrested only 24 were put on trial, 6 of them were jailed but acquitted after 3 years, and the rest were pardoned. They were innocent, but tortured for wishing the independence of Catalonia.
As a result of those brutal tortures, the Spanish state was accused and then a long process around Spanish Court of justices and tribunals started, they would reject the case continuously, and all that took 10 years. At last the case has been accepted via the international justice represented by the Human Rights Tribunal in Strasbourg.
It is the first time that Spain will be put on trial by an international organism accused of allowing the Spanish police to use torture as a weapon against the Catalan separatist movement.
The Human Rights Tribunal has got more than 30.000 annual demands, and the fact that this case has been accepted it is an acknowledgment of the struggle against the torture that the Spanish state carries out commonly. It is also an acknowledgment to the truth and dignity.
But all this trial is being silenced by the Spanish media…

It is important that if you consider yourself a right person and you are in favour of the human rights, you circulate this mail through the net.

To know more about this case and the kind of tortures practised by the Spanish state:

 http://www.fti.uab.es/rpiqueh/tortura/indice.htm (In Catalan only)

To know more about the reality and existence of a nation that is fighting for its independence:
 http://www.freecatalonia.com (In English, Spanish and Catalan)

Forward to the Victory!

melic
- Homepage: http://www.freecatalonia.com

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