Friday, May 25, 2012

Basque Country: inquisitorial trial for showing prisoners' photos

The Spanish Inquisition has not lost any of its grip, sadly enough, and these days it is judging some citizens who dared to exhibit photos of Basque prisoners in demand of their rights being upheld and their expatriation to far away lands being reversed. 

The "crime" happened in 2009, in the context of the Korrika, a popular jogging march across the country to gather funds for the Basque language academies' network AEK. In this context, people and groups "buy" a kilometer or several and have the right to exhibit their demands while jogging for Basque language in exchange for their money.

Naturally prisoner support groups have been often present since decades ago without further ado. But, as of late, the Spanish Inquisition and some Basque acolytes have begun a campaign against the solidarity with our prisoners and have begun criminalizing the show of their photos as "terrorism", even if many of them are in jail just for socio-political activity, having nothing to do with violence of any sort. 

In protest for this political persecution, activists of Eleak have demonstrated today in Pamplona showing photos of historical political prisoners from around the World who often today enjoy widespread recognition as political leaders or for other reasons:




The ex-prisoners whose photos were exhibited are: Nelson Mandela (attorney, guerrilla fighter, political leader and eventually President of South Africa), Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemalan rights activist and Peace Nobel laureate), Rosa Parks (who famously ignited the African-American struggle for their rights in the 1960s by disobeying an abusive law), Bobby Sands (IRA prisoner who died in hunger strike in the 1980s) and Malcom-X (African-American political leader who famously left said: "Liberate our minds by any means necessary").

Source: Ateak Ireki[es] (includes video).

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