Basque socialist faces court for Batasuna meeting 03/11/2006 00:00

3 November 2006

BILBAO — A court is to hear a case against the Basque socialist party leader and the head of ETA's banned political wing.

The court in Bilbao has agreed to consider the case which was brought by the conservative opposition Popular Party and a Right-wing campaign group called the Ermua Forum.

They claim the leader of the Basque socialists, Patxi Lopez and the Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi and other members of his party, broke the law by holding a meeting.

The meeting allegedly broke an earlier sentence passed against Batasuna by the Supreme Court.

The meeting was held in July in the Hotel Amara Plaza in San Sebastián to explore ways of taking the peace process forward.

Lopez and Otegi later said separately they were hopeful that the peace process could proceed with all the parties at future talks.

But Lopez did add Batasuna had to condemn ETA violence. 

In October, a court opened a case against the Basque regional prime minister Juan José Ibarretxe for holding a meeting with Otegi and other Batasuna leaders in April.

The Ermua Forum is a group named after the town in the Basque Country where the young Popular Party councillor Miguel Angel Blanco, who was kidnapped and killed by ETA, had worked.

Blanco's murder started a wave of public protest against ETA, which shocked the leadership of the terrorist group.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news