France to deport politician to Spain: de facto illegalization of Batasuna in the North

Today at 16:00 CET a demonstration that will probably be quite large will gather at the Northern Basque capital, Baiona (Bayonne), to protest the extradition dictated by the tribunals of Pau in favor of deporting young politician Aurore Martin to Spain, where she will be judged and surely sent to prison by the political tribunal Audiencia Nacional.

Her only crime: to be politically active in favor of Basque sovereignty. The party she belongs to, Batasuna, has been declared illegal in Spain but is still legal in France. Yet this has been no obstacle for the French judges with jurisdiction on parts of our country to order her arrest and extradition.

Abertzaleen Batasuna (the main nationalist party in the North) wondered why France always follows the Spanish lead in the repression against Basques.

The Parti de Gauche (Party of the Left) considers unacceptable that Martin is sent to an exception tribunal.

The Labor Union Platform of Stateless Nations condemns this attack to political freedom of speech and warns that the measure obstructs any sort of political resolution of the conflict.

The Communist Party (PCF) says that the case demonstrates the failure of Europe in the issue of liberties.

France was recently condemned by the European Court on the arrest of a lawyer in 2005. The European tribunal argues that in France public attorneys are not independent because they are appointed by the Ministry of Interior and therefore they do not fulfill the requirement of impartiality and independence.

Aurore Martin is a former mahaikide (National Board Member, from mahai: table, board + kide: colleague, member) of Batasuna. Her attorney, Amaia Rekarte, declared yesterday that the goal of this judicial decision is to illegalize Batasuna de facto. 

The organizers of today's demonstration want to express the rejection to hand the Basque political leader to a torturer state. Among the organizers there are members of Abertzeleen Batasuna (Patriots' Union, a distinct party from Batasuna and the main nationalist force of the North), ELB, LAB, Sud and Solidaires (all these labor unions).

The decision has been appealed and the appeal should be resolved in about a month in Paris. However, considering this decision is clearly politically motivated and manipulated, few expect it to be revoked.

Source: Gara[es]: link 1, link 2, Kazeta[eu]