Tortures reported in political trial against Basque youths

The five youths arrested in Loiola are part of a much larger group of 28 being tried for their political activism and ideology at the Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional) these days in Madrid. 

The trial began yesterday with the victims of political persecution turning their backs to the court in signal of non-recognition and showing banners in demand of repatriation of Basque prisoners. 

After an hour and a half of suspension the farce trial continued at close doors with the declarations of the victims of persecution, most of whom have denounced tortures that forced them to sign self-inculpatory declarations. 

Ander Maeztu reported systematic beatings and the so-called "bag" torture (asphyxia by putting a bag on your head). Garazi Autor denounced sexual agressions and beatings. 

Izaskun Goñi, who knew for two years before her arrest that she was being under persecution, reported the anguish suffered for all that time expecting that any night (it's almost always by night) police entered her home and arrested her, beginning the much feared "long journey". When it finally happened she suffered a panic attack. 

Among the "evidence" against her is her participation in a protest against the murder of baker Anger Berrueta by a policeman in Pamplona in 2004. 

Ohiana López and Eneko Villegas reported systematic beatings and forced physical exercise up to extenuation. They say that their declarations are totally false. 

Ibon Esteban and Egoi Irisarri also denounced tortures. Esteban managed to identify one of his torturers and showed a photo of this vile man to the court. Irisarri declared that in Canillas [police station] I went through hell.

The only one not reporting tortures this first day of the trial was Endika Pérez, who was arrested by French police in the Northern Basque Country, soon after taking part in a sit-in in Izpura precisely to denounce the possibility of being arrested and deported to Spain. 

Second day of the hearing

The day began with the court sending to prison the five citizens arrested in Loiola, claiming risk of evasion, action that was opposed by the defense on the grounds that they were all the time localized and never attempted such evasion. 

Then the narrations of torture sessions continued:

Imanol Beristain reported being subjected to forced postures, beatings and kickings, sexual aggressions. He reported to have lost consciousness because of the pain, waking up drenched in sweat. 

Rubén Villa declared that he began to be tortured already in the Bilbao police station. He was told, sarcastically, that he could relax, that they would not pull out his fingernails nor bury him in quicklime (as happened to two ETA members decades ago, after being captured by the Spanish police). Then they dragged him to a window, pulling half his body out and said: this is the last time you will breathe the air of Bilbao. The forensic doctor did not even pay attention to his complains. 

Xabat Moran explained: they manage to make your head crack... your body is still yours but your head they own it. I did not control my own actions. 

Moran denounced forced postures, beating, "the bag" (asphyxiation) and insinuations that they were raping his girlfriend in the nearby room. Just an hour before being sent to the instruction judge he was naked and in state of shock in the very room he had been tortured, being that the reason he signed a false declaration. 

Ainara Ladrón reported "hell" in the journey to Madrid: they beat me, they hit me with their fists on my ribs, they pushed me against the window and yelled at me all the time. She also denounced sexual aggressions in the police station, rejecting what she signed then, even if this declaration was not self-inculpatory. She has requested to skip the bulk of the trial sessions on the grounds of being pregnant, request that has been granted.

Ikoitz Arrese, Saioa Zubiaur and Xabier Bidaurre also reported tortures in the incommunicado period of their arrest. Arrese denounced a fake execution, with a policeman placing a gun on her head. Among other tortures, Bidaurre reported that he was threatened with the rape of his companion.

The farce trial continues today. 

Source[es]: Naiz Info (link 1, link 2).

Spain charges against political dissidence online

The so called Spider Operative got 21 citizens, largely Basque but also from other parts of the residual empire, arrested under the anti-terrorist law for allegedly supporting terrorism and attacking ETA victims. The propaganda machinery, alias mass media, quickly spread the government's version without any contrast. The reality? Not much. 

The propaganda centerpiece was what a single individual, whose name has not been made public and whose Twitter account was deleted, posted: such blunt aggressive and clearly illegal comments that he is strongly suspected to be a police agent provocateur. The other 20? Nothing worth mentioning. 

So why were they arrested? The experience of Aitor Martínez (pictured) is very informative: he was never informed of the specific charges and the state-appointed attorney acted as accusation.

First of all Aitor was illegally arrested because the agents did not identify themselves as such. This is common practice but it is blatantly illegal. 

Second, he was accused of generic "computer crimes", with no detail whatsoever. He has gathered information that police already had a political file of his person, reporting him as member of the Basque National Liberation Movement and collaborator with a website, surely Topatu.info.

Worst of all was the attitude of the state-appointed attorney (under the anti-terrorist law you cannot appoint an attorney of your choice). She accused him of "doing something" and when he rejected her suspicions of drawing any ETA icon, she began asking him if he may have used black eagle (ancient Navarrese flag) or icons for prisoner amnesty, all perfectly legal stuff. 

Aitor Martínez also mentions that another girl, who was questioned before him, said that all she had done was to go to a National Day rally. 

In the propaganda video of the Spanish Military Police (Guardia Civil) the names of all the accused except precisely the one who posted the really criminal tweets are publicly revealed. This may not have such major consequences in the Basque Country, sadly used to decades or even centuries of the worst repression, but imagine the stigma that can befall to a youngster from Asturias or other localities of the state where some of the victims of this political raid are from. 

Aitor suspects that the author of the criminal tweets is an agent provocateur of the Guardia Civil itself, who provided single-handedly the propaganda material that has been used to accuse all the rest. 

He thinks that the goal of the operative is to spread fear.

Meanwhile fascist criminals are left at large

Basque MP Sabino Cuadra (pictured) denounced the recent aggression that he suffered in Jaén at the hands of fascist groups rallied precisely by the so-called Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT), as well as other far-right groups, and how these enjoy impunity under the Spanish repressive system. 

Cuadra is considered by many the most outspoken "Spanish" MP,  who is able to call things by their real name.

Also the known criminal torturers Antonio González Pacheco ("Billy the Kid") and Jesús Muñecas, who are persecuted in Argentina under the principle of global jurisdiction for crimes against humankind, have been protected by the Spanish political court Audiencia Nacional (the Inquisition), allowing them to remain at large.

Global eye opening about the shadowy reality of Spanish maverick judge Baltasar Garzón

This guy, who lead much of the worst repression against Basques and our most basic liberties, may be known to you because he is the defense attorney of Wikileaks leader Julian Assange or because he once made a futile attempt to bring Chilean dictator Pinochet to trial, embarrassing Great Britain.

But, in spite of being a character well worth of an intrigue novel or film, Garzón is essentially a hypocrite and a repressor, clearly aligned with the worst of Spanish and global elites.

Argentines are discovering it now and have dedicated a whole blog with plenty material on his person, to uncover the dark truth of Garzón. The materials are so far only available in Spanish, but they are interesting enough to teach me something new about this human worm and therefore to share here at least in outline form. 

Garzón was paid by multinational corporations to teach "anti-terrorism", he paid back in legal favors

→ article[es].

This is one of the items I did not know about beforehand. Spanish multinational companies CEPSA, Banco Santander, BBVA, Telefónica, Endesa and Unión Fenosa, paid Garzón €1 million to give a course on "international terrorism", along with such elements as Condi Rice, John Negroponte, Thimothy Geithner, Michael Chertoff, Michael Bloomberg, Rodrigo Rato, José Manuel Insulza (OAS) and Arthur Shulzberg (NYT).

The case was known publicly because in the 2010 revenge legal action taken against him by his own colleagues, it became apparent that he may have paid back Banco Santander by dismissing a case against them. 

The presence of so many US VIPs in Garzón courses was arranged by Banco Santander as well, on request of the maverick Spanish judge. 

The article links to a number of documents backing this case of cronyism.

Garzón used illegal wiretapping to hinder the investigation of the Gürtel corruption affair of the Spanish conservatives

→ article[es].

When still a judge of the Audiencia Nacional (especial political tribunal of Spain), Garzón wiretapped conversations between those investigated and their attorneys in what seems a clear case of intentional muddying of the legal procedure to nullify the prosecution. 

His defense attorney in that case is, quite notably, the same one defending some of those accused in the Gürtel affair, Francisco Correa, who is also godfather of Garzón's son. 

Garzón actively supported state terrorism in Colombia

→ article[es].

He provided legal assessment for the whitewashing of the many horrible paramilitary terror crimes under Uribe and publicly backed the Colombian state attorney in this operation of criminal impunity. 

Garzón attacked Bolivarian Venezuela in connivance with the oligarchy

→ article[es].

After being hired as public relations by the Venezuelan capitalist syndicate CONINDUSTRIA, he backed the RCTV broadcasting corporation when the license it had was not renewed by the government.

He also wrote the foreword of the book by reactionary leader Enrique Capriles Radonski Estado Delincuente (Criminal State), dedicated to defame the Venezuelan democratic socialism. 

Garzón worked against truth and reparation in the case against victims of Fascism in Spain

→ article[es].

Some have imagined, thanks to media hype and half-truths that Garzón was some sort of "hero" in the demand of justice for the massive crimes of Fascism in Spain. But the reality is very different. 

Not just he brought the cases to his own court Audiencia Nacional, legally not competent, but he has admitted publicly that:

• He stopped opening burials of the victims of Fascism
• He did not make any actual investigation whatsoever

His activity of sabotage of the case for some 157,000 victims of Fascist terror, has been denounced by human rights associations.

Garzón was a key piece in the political repression and tortures against the Basque People as well as US kidnapping of Muslims

→ article 1 (torture) [es].

→ article 2 (closure of media)[es].

Well known here but maybe not as well abroad. Garzón, along with other Spanish judges, notably those in the Audiencia Nacional, protected systematic torture against political prisoners of all sorts, not just Basques, but also Catalans, etc.

He also dismissed systematically all denounces of torture.

Garzón was a centerpiece in the political repression that exploded in 1998 against the Basque People. His infamous case 18/98 established the legal frame of "everything is ETA", by which every other Basque entity, be it political, social, cultural or even the media, have been persecuted in the last 15 years. 

He closed newspaper Egin (To Do, an excellent medium with lots of investigative journalism and high quality information and opinion), radio station Egin Irratia and magazines Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep) and its successor Kale Gorria (Damned Street), dedicated exclusively to investigative journalism and, therefore, a threat of truth and transparency against the many corruptions of the Spanish and Basque oligarchies. 

Many of their journalists were jailed and sometimes tortured. A decade later the case was dismissed but the harm was already done. 

Garzón collaborated with the kidnapping and tortures of Muslims by the USA

→ article[es].

Even such a coy organization as Amnesty international denounced Garzón for his active complicity in the US operations of arbitrary kidnapping of Muslim suspects and transference to Guantanamo concentration camp and other secret prisons worldwide. 

In the case of the only Spaniard held in Guantanamo, Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, Garzón was informed of the tortures suffered by this citizen but he preferred to bury the issue adhering to the doctrine of "all is Al Qaeda", by which every single Muslim is suspect and therefore, seemingly, unprotected by any law, much less this cynic.

Beware Julian, beware!

Garzón exposed as torturer in Argentina

Garzón leaving the building by a backdoor

Former Spanish super-judge Baltasar Garzón, diffusely popular in some international circles for his mediatic (but totally inefficient) attempts to judge some international criminals like Pinochet or G.W. Bush, and nowadays also attorney of the beleaguered research journalist Julian Assange, was exposed in an Argentine radio show for what he actually is: a chief torturer and repressor with a big ego.

As he was being interviewed in Radio Nacional of Argentina, when he dared to make mention to Andalusian poet and victim of fascism Federico García Lorca, members of the public booed him saying that he is in fact "a repressor of Basque fighters". One of them stated:

It is a shame that you come here to talk of human rights when you have doomed to systematic torture and tens of years of prison to popular fighters for the only reason of being independentist. 

Other members of the public showed photos of Unai Romano (a notorious victim of Spanish systematic torture practices, hidden and allowed by Garzón and other political judges) as well as Basque flags. The protest continued then outside the radio station for hours. The fake human rights' hero had to be escorted by police under popular boos.

Source: Gara[es].


Update (Sep 22): BDG! has today an article[es] on this issue with a deep analysis from Argentina denouncing the falsehood and deep hypocrisy of Garzón.

He is not only accused of torturing and violating the human rights of Basque activists, as well as Galicians, Catalans, Arabs, etc. from his all-powerful seat as judge of the Audiencia Nacional (tribunal of fascist creation for political cases). He was key in implementing the doctrine of "all is ETA", by which hundreds of peaceful activists were suddenly "upgraded" to "terrorists", by which two newspapers, several magazines and at least one radio station were closed overnight (many years later acquitted but the damage was already done), imprisoning and torturing some of their journalists.

But he is also an accomplice of fascist terror: he personally invalidated the demand by human rights organizations in representation of more than 152,000 victims of fascist terror in Spain.

In Latin America he has also been a paladin of fascist terror, being advisor to Colombian presidents, first Uribe, now Santos, being key in the impediments to persecuting military terrorists in the South American country. In Venezuela instead he supported the putschist media RCTV when it lost its license. Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodríguez called him "a clown who came to our country to give lessons of democracy", a "pro-imperialist judge" who "came here paid and salaried to say what the Venezuelan opposition want to hear".

Assange, Ecuador: you should know who placed the mics in the embassy by now. Get rid of that fascist!

Basque prisoner in hunger strike against deportation to Spain, where he may face torture

Basque prisoner Ibai Sueskun (pictured) is in hunger strike since September 1st against his forced deportation to Spain, where he fears he could be arbitrarily arrested and tortured, even after having completed his 10-year sentence for membership in ETA. 

Sueskun is natural of Larraga (Navarre) but resident in Donibane (Northern Basque Country, under French administration) and is now at the Prison of Tarascon.

Source: Ateak Ireki[es].

Chile: torturer physicians' list is made public

A list with the names of 36 physicians who tortured political prisoners under Pinochet's Fascist-Thatcherist regime has come to light. Many of them still exert their profession freely. 

The full list is available in Spanish language at WPChile and Webguerrillero.

Greece: police raid in Patras in support of the Nazis - trotures reported while under arrest

From From the Greek Streets:

Patras: anti-fascists clash with the fascists of Golden Dawn; police detain 25 anti-fascists in retaliation

On the evening of July 24, local Golden Dawn members had called for and attempted to hold a gathering at the square outside stadium of Panahaiki (a local football team). Just prior to the gathering, approximately 50 anti-fascists were pushed back by the riot police guarding the square on behalf of the Golden Dawn nazis.

Later on, at approximately 11pm, car with GD members drove past Olgas square, a popular anarchist/anti-fascist hang-out. It was swiftly attacked by the anti-fascists and members of the police’s DELTA squad attacked them in retaliation. 

Approximately 25 anti-fascists were detained by the police and some were subsequently tortured at the police HQ. At least two anti-fascists who had been seriously injured had request to see a doctor rejected for hours.

At approximately 02:40, all 25 anti-fascists were finally released.

USA: prisoners in California begin hunger strike against "super-max isolation" regime

Prisoners in California have begun today a hunger strike in protest against the extreme isolation regime to which they are subject, which amounts to torture.

They have published a single-issue newspaper named STRIKE THE PRISONS to make their situation and demands known, as well as relating their struggle to the many other popular fights that shatter the World these days.

Their demands:

1. Eliminate Group Punishments
2. Abolish the Debriefing Policy and Modify ‘Active/Inactive’ Gang Status Criteria
3. Comply with Recommendations of U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons (from 2006)
4. Provide Adequate Food
5. Provide Constructive Programs and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Inmates.

Opening article:

CALIFORNIA’S SOLITARY CONFINEMENT POLICY IS A ‘HUMAN RIGHTS DISASTER’

In 2011, thousands of California state prisoners engaged in a hunger strike to end long term solitary confinement and to demand changes to the way that prisoners are assigned to these torturous units, known as SHUs (security housing units). The corrections department (CDCR) agreed to make changes, which it rolled out in November, 2012. CDCR’s public relations strategy is to persuade lawmakers, judges and the general public that its new program is a vast improvement. However, the new program keeps most of the objectionable elements of the old program and adds some new elements which make it even worse.

The Step Down Program: Under the old rules, the only way to get out of the SHU was to “parole, snitch or die”, or be found “inactive” as a gang member or associate (a rare finding). The new policy offers a new way out: the Step Down Program, a 4 step program which takes a minimum of three or four years. The first 2-3 years are spent in solitary confinement, with no education or other programming. The prisoner is required to demonstrate “progress” by, among other things, filling out workbooks showing changed attitudes. The one workbook we have seen is condescending and judgmental. Lifetime solitary confinement remains possible.

Coerced secret evidence: The hated “debriefing” program remains live and well. SHU prisoners can get out of the SHU by confessing his/her own gang involvement and identifying other prisoners’ gang involvement. This information is used to place other prisoners in the SHU or retain them there. Targeted prisoners are not entitled to know who has named them, or the specifics of the accusation. It is almost impossible to defend oneself against secret charges.

Guilt by association: Under the old policies, prisoners were assigned a six year SHU term for simply being affiliated (as a member or associate) with a prison gang. The prisoner did not have to break any prison rule. Prisoners were validated for possessing art work or political readings, signing a greeting card, exercising with other prisoners or saying hello to another prisoner. Under the new rules, this same evidence can be used to prove a prisoner is a member, and membership alone justifies a SHU term.

New disciplinary program: Under the old rules, possessing certain artwork or literature was used as evidence of gang association. Prisoners and advocates objected, saying that SHU placement should only be for gang behavior. CDCR’s responded in its new program by labeling such evidence as gang “behavior” in its new rules. Guards can now cite prisoners for rules violations for possessing these items and punishment can be imposed.

Widening the net: Under the old policies, a prisoner could be placed in the SHU for affiliation with any of seven prison gangs. Under the new rules, any grouping of three or more prisoners can be added to the list as a “security threat group”, membership in which can result in a SHU term. The expansion of the SHU-eligible population is of grave concern.

Rubber-stamping: Although CDCR has inserted a new stage of review for SHU placements, this review is still within the confines of the prison system, where the dominant culture is to rubber-stamp the gang unit’s decisions. CDCR has not changed its culture. Independent oversight is necessary to curtail CDCR’s excesses.

Re-evaluations of current SHU prisoners: As part of the resolution of the 2011 hunger strikes, CDCR agreed to re-evaluate the SHU placement of current SHU prisoners, using its new criteria. CDCR is reviewing associates first and reports that over half of its initial reviews are resulting in assignments to general population. This reclassification is a huge victory and is proof of the unfairness of the old SHU policies, but is no proof of fairness of the new policies.

stoptortureca.org

Source: Kasama.

Torture in the Basque Country

From Borroka Garaia Da! (English and Spanish original, videos subtitled in English):

Torturas. Torture in the Basque Country

10.000 basques  has been tortured in the Spanish state for the past 50 years. 40.000 politically-related arrested Basques over 53 years an more than 30.000 were not later charged.

That in a country of barely three million people some ten thousand cases of torture have been documented is an indicator of the brutality that has characterized the state in their repression of the Basque independence movement, and the fact that the cases have maintained throughout time an example that the this repression hasn’t changed with regimes or governments. Torture has always been understood by Madrid as one more tool in their policy towards this people.

An example that torture has been a strategy of the state against the Basque Country is to realize that there have only been 19 convictions condemning torture. Altogether, no more than 62 agents of the state’s security forces have been condemned for torturing Basque citizens. And what is even more shameful, more than half of those condemned, a total of 36 have been pardoned by the governments of the PP or the PSOE.

—————



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOlrOwf_O5g



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_iaxiJ_QAM



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGLi0ii9Jfs



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Ra9UAGzC8

Spanish High Court judge Baltasar Garzón complied with the protocol regarding the people held under arrest after the police operation executed in Biscay in July 2008, and, in theory, the Guardia Civil (a Spanish police force) adopted several due procedures concerning those under arrest; meanwhile, the Guardia Civil video-recorded the arrest. During the oral trial some images taken in the cells were shown: the arrested people along with the policemen can be seen to and fro the corridors of the jail — Arkaitz Goikoetxea, Iñigo Gutierrez, Maialen Zuazo and Anabel Prieto-

The documentary gathers together the statements made by those tortured under police arrest by the police, the assessments of lawyers and experts, and the images shown in the trial. The work is made in Spanish with Basque, French and English subtitles.

——–

120 hours. Torture against the Basque Country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0dk3vvILUc#at=2104

English subtitles

Eguzki bideoak

“120 horas, la tortura contra Euskal Herria”; un documental que trata de explicar los recobecos de la tortura y su uso en la actualidad. Este método con el que sonsacar información o con el que forzar a admitir una información que puede o no ser cierta, ha sido aplicada de manera sistemática a muchas de las personas detenidas que participaban en el movimiento social de euskal herria.
A través de entrevistas a personas que han sufrido esta práctica ruin y otras que han analizado con detenimiento esta realidad, como abogadas, médicas y activistas especializadas conoceremos por qué todavía es posible que la tortura se aplique, considerando que nos encontramos en un supuesto sistema democrático donde se preservan los derechos civiles y humanos, y cuáles podrían ser los mecanismos para erradicar esta realidad que los vulnera de manera radical.

————

TORTURE AGAINST THE BASQUES

———–.





————

Spanish actor Willy Toledo moves to Cuba and speaks out again

Guillermo "Willy" Toledo has won several prizes but he is best known maybe for his compromise with popular struggles in Spain and abroad alike, as well as his blunt honesty. Recently he announced he is moving to Cuba because he feels the need to be in direct contact with the lively dynamics of Latin America. Digital Newspaper Webguerrillero reproduces today an interview[es] with him, of which I translate some small fragments:

They have always told me: "if you like Cuba so much, why don't you move there". Well, I am already in Cuba... I imagine now the chief editors and the lackeys of their masters in the newspapers' redactions squeezing their brains to see how they could discredit me and all they could muster was that one: to publish a photo of a mansion with butlers, chaffeur and swimming pool... and all the fantasized privileges that the Cuban state gives those who defend it... well, it is radical and absolutely false. 

...

I am aware that I have been vetoed [in Spain, because of his compromise with Cuba] for various jobs in TV and cinema. What dimension does this have? I can't say because, excepting all these cases that I know for sure, I will never get to know if they said: "don't give this job to Willy Toledo". I am persuaded that this happens, exactly the same that there are dozens or even hundreds of political prisoners in my country just for expressing their opinions, just for being activists of the Left, of the Revolutionary Left especially, be it in the Basque Country, in Madrid, in Andalusia, in Catalonia wherever... Recently some Catalan Anarchists were arrested just for expressing their opinions in Facebook; that is the democratic state we live in. I am, I have always been very conscious of the consequences that being active in the Left, or the "extreme left" as they say, may carry.

... I keep an eye in Spain and when they need me I will be back there. When everything explodes, because it will explode, there will be a social uprising and there will be a true frontal opposition in the streets against the criminal government ruling in the Spanish state, I will be the first one to join. 

... would not I be a well-known actor I would probably be in jail right now, in prison in Spain; that is the sensation I have, they have tried it a couple of times but I think they calculated that having me in prison is not in their interest... by the moment, because there are many young men and women in jail who never had the media repercussion that there was the two times I was arrested.

Note: he was arrested once at a protest in the Spanish Congress in solidarity against the Moroccan massacre of the Peace and Dignity Camp of Gdeim Izik, West Sahara. Then he was also arrested when participating in a General Strike picket, suffering, as many others, false accusations. 

In the case of the General Strike many comrades who were arrested that very same night were kept prisoners for months in the jails of the Spanish state where - according to the European Union, the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and local anti-torture groups - still today, in the year 2013, prisoners are brutally tortured in police stations and prisons, something that never happened in Cuba. 

Basque official report on the victims during the guerrilla war

Fascist mercenaries at the Montejurra massacre

The semi-autonomous Western Basque Government has issued a report[es] that attempts to quantify the numbers and typology of the victims in the period of the guerrilla war from 1960 to 2013. 

Actually ETA was only active in armed form from 1968 and officially declared the end to armed struggle in 2011. Guerrilla war and state repression should be quantified, in my understanding since 1936, when the fascist coup ignited the fire of popular armed resistance, which existed since then in many forms (grouped in the catch-all term maquis, inherited from the French Resistance), some of them with clear independentist undertones. 

The report also seems somewhat biased in favor of certain kind of victims, not counting, for example, deaths in prison or those killed or mutilated in car accidents when traveling to far away prisons to visit their relatives or friends. People in prison for political reasons, with or without sentence, should be accounted and in most cases are not. The report mentions once and again the various associations of "victims of terrorism" but never any association against torture, for the rights of prisoners, etc. Those killed in police operations against armed groups, such as the Pasaia Massacre, don't seem to be accounted for either. It is not clear if the reports of police violence include those by French agents (surely not).

Fascist PM Carrero Blanco was killed by ETA(m)

In any case, the report accounts for the following figures for the 1960-1978 period:

• 136 killed by ETA, Autonomous Anti-Capitalist Commandos (CCAA) and other anti-system groups. In detail:
• ETA (prior to schism): 18
• ETA (militar): 89
• ETA (political-militar): 9 (2 in kidnappings)
• CCAA: 4
• Iberian Directorate for Liberation (DRIL): 1
• Others: 2
• Not sufficiently clear: 13 (2 in kidnappings).
• 87 killed by the Spanish police (74), death squads (13) or death penalty. In detail:
• Police abuses, confusion and other causes: 23
• Police violence in demonstrations: 22
• In road controls: 19
• In police custody: 5
• By out-of-service agents: 5
• By the Basque-Spanish Battalion (BVE): 3
• By the Apostolic Anti-Communist Alliance (Triple A): 2
• By fascist violence against demonstrators: 3
• By execution after military trial: 2 (the famous Txiki and Otaegi, 10 others were sentenced to death but never actually killed).
• Other anti-system violence:
• 236 seriously injured in attacks (230 by ETA in its various forms).
• 14 people kidnapped and later released (3 after being shot to the knee).
• 8 attacks against media.
• An undetermined number of police agents injured in demonstrations.
• Some 3600 major attacks (by organized groups) in this and the following period.
• Some 4500 minor attacks (in the so called "street fight") in this and the following period.
• Other state violence:
• 422 injured by police violence in demonstrations. 
• 355 death squad arson attacks and death threats.
• 238 subject to military trials.
• 103 terror attacks by death squads (not including kidnappings).
• 32 journalist brought to trial or otherwise jailed.
• 22 injured in road controls.
• 22 death squad attacks against demonstrations.
• 13 hospitalized after arrest.
• 11 death squad attacks against media.
• 9 kidnappings with violence and torture by death squads.
• 6 injured by out-of-service police agents.
• An undetermined number of arbitrary arrests, preventive prison, etc.
• An undetermined number of media closures, censorship and prohibitions.
• Not researched but mentioned: abuses and torture against prisoners.
• Unclear: 4 people missing.

Not accounted for? (Pasaia 1984)

In the 1979-2013 period:

• 703 killed by anti-system groups:
• In attacks by ETA(m): 644 
• In attacks by the CCAA: 38
• In attacks by ETA(pm): 12
• In attacks by Iparretarrak (IK): 3
• In attacks by Iraultza: 1 (but a member of Iraultza, which never targeted people).
• In kidnappings by ETA(m): 8
• In kidnappings by ETA(pm): 2
• In kidnappings by the CCAA: 2
• In kidnappings by ETA-VIII: 1
• In "street fight" actions: 3
• Itsasondo man who got tired of police persecution and killed two with a hunting rifle (later run away and joined ETA): 2. 
• Not clarified: 314 (figure by FVT, highly suspect, not added to total).
• Some 126 killed by the state and satellite groups:
• In attacks by the Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups (GAL): 24
• By police (abuse, confusion or other causes): 18
• In attacks by the Basque-Spanish Battalion (BVE): 14
• In police custody: 12
• By out-of-service police agents: 12
• In road controls: 11
• By police violence in demonstrations: 10
• In attacks by the Spanish Anti-Terrorist Groups (GAE): 7
• In attacks by the Triple A: 3
• By death squad attacks against demonstrations: 3
• In prison: 2 (only?)
• Women raped and killed by the BVE: 2
• Other death squad kidnappings with murder: 2
• Missing people whose corpses were found: 2
• In attacks by "Antiterrorismo ETA" (ATE): 1
• Deaths by death squads never clarified: at least 3. Most cases were never investigated properly anyhow.
• Other anti-system violence:
• Injured in attacks: figures vary: from 2068 to 16,000.
• Kidnapped and released: 
• ETA(pm): 24 (11 after being shot to the knee)
• ETA(m): 17
• ETA-VIII: 5
• ETA (prior to schism): 3
• CCAA: 3
• ETA-VII: 1
• Not clarified: 8 (these may be mafia violence in fact)
• Attacks against media: 32
• Major arson attacks (by armed groups): some 3600 (both periods)
• Minor arson attacks (by the so-called "street violence"): some 4500 (both periods)
• Other state violence:
• Torture: maybe as many as 10,000 victims, some 5500 public denounces.
• Hospitalized after police arrest: 124
• Only 62 agents (who tortured 31 victims) were declared guilty of tortures, 27 of them were later pardoned by the government.
• Injured in road controls: 30
• Injured by police (confusion, abuses and other causes): 39
• Injured by out-of-service police agents: 13
• Injured by police in demonstrations: 222 (only?)
• Undue closure of media: 2 (Egin newspaper and radio, Egunkaria)
• Violations of human rights in prison: not researched (lots!)
• Injured in death squad attacks: 232
• Injured by death squads in demonstrations: 10
• Women raped by death squads: 13
• Kidnappings with intimidation and torture: 49
• Arson attacks and death threats by death squads: 633 (10 against media)
• Not clarified: 2 missing people and another unspecified case.

While I do not necessarily subscribe the data produced in this report (too many blanks and question marks), it is clear that it serves as partial reference for historians and political debate.

Bahrain: tortured prisoner sent to isolation instead of hospital

It would seem that the current "fashion" of extra-judiciary killings has become now to make people die in prison.

From BCHR:

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BHRC) is gravely concerned for the health and wellbeing of Ali Abdullah Al-Singace, who is still subjected to torture, denied access to adequate medical care, and has been in solitary confinement for the last ten days.

Ali Al-Singace is a 20 year-old Bahraini who was initially sentenced to death by a military court during the imposed State of National Emergency in 2011; his conviction for allegedly running over a policeman on 16 MAR 2011 was later reduced to a life sentence. Ali was not given a fair trial, and his conviction remained in place despite the fact that the lawyers had presented evidence that Ali had a broken leg during the time of his alleged crime. For more background information on the case, please refer to: http://bahrainrights.hopto.org/en/node/3983.

Since the day of his arrest on the 23rd of March 2011 until now, Ali has been subjected to different kinds of physical, sexual and sociological torture. He was stripped of his clothes and brutally beaten with sharp weapons, metal rods and wooden sticks on different parts of his body, causing him to suffer from sever back and heart pains. He was also threatened with rape and death, and has lost some of his teeth after he was beaten in the face. 

... full article at BHCR.

Turkey: 72 hrs general strike called beginning today, clashes continue

Police shoots gas bombs into a home

The three major unions, Türk-Is, Hak-Is y DISK, have got together and called for a general strike of three days, beginning today. While the formal pretext is solidarity with TEKEL (a major public company in process of privatization) nobody ignore that the real reasons are much wider and that the core of the struggle is political: to remove Erdogan from office and end with repression and reactionary neo-islamization.

The clashes have continued with epicenter in the Ankaran district of Beksitas, where the government headquarters are located, but also in popular neighborhoods. Repression has been brutal again.

This man lost his eye when hit by a rubber bullet

Video (RT): street battles in Ankara

Communist banners in a protest

One of the main focus of institutional repression has been the Communist Party (TPK), whose offices were assaulted by police with no contempt. 

In one of the street battles, citizens found an old AK-47 rifle inside one of the police cars, raising speculations that they may have been planning yet another false flag attack (typical of Turkish "deep state"). 

The injured by institutional repression are so many that camp hospitals have been placed in many cities and towns. Hospitals cannot just cope anymore. The number of arrested is also immense and there are serious fears that they are being tortured in police stations.

The struggle continues, Erdogan will fall.

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (link1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5, link 6).

See also: What is happening in Istanbul (an open letter to the World by blogger Sumandef Hakkında).

USA: 100,000 people in solitary confinement every single day - new prisoner hunger strike in California

The USA is not only the state with more people in prison but also the one with more people submitted to cruel and unusual punishments like solitary confinement. Don't tell me about gulags anymore please...

From Black Agenda Report:

The total U.S. prison inmate population held in solitary confinement on any given day exceeds 100,000 – “the equivalent of locking up every man, woman and child in Charleston, South Carolina, in their own little 8 by 12 foot box – for an eternity.” Prisoners in solitary at California’s Pelican Bay may once again go on hunger strike, July 8. They need support from the outside.

Another prison hunger strike is looming in California, where more than 200 inmates at the Pelican Bay supermax have been in solitary confinement for between five and ten years and nearly 100 have been shut off from most human contact for 20 years or more. Across the nation, on any given day, more than 100,000 inmates suffer in solitary – about 25,000 in the federal system and another 80,000 or so in state facilities. That’s the equivalent of locking up every man, woman and child in Charleston, South Carolina, in their own little 8 by 12 foot box – for an eternity. Nothing like this American form of mass human torment has ever existed on the face of the earth: systematic, industrial strength torture, multiplied 100,000 times per day. Solitary confinement as a form of routine, mass punishment is beyond barbarity. Nowhere in human history do we find barbarians who tortured hundreds of thousands of people every day for decades at a time. Only in America.

Solitary confinement, by its very nature, is designed to ensure that no one but the torturers hears the cries of the tormented. However, knowledge of such monstrous evil compels decent men and women to action, in solidarity with those who have been wronged. The prisoners of Pelican Bay, who went on hunger strike in 2011, have sent word that they will do so again, on July 8, if the state of California does not meet their core demands. One demand is fundamental: that inmates not be confined to solitary unless they have been charged, “and found guilty of, committing a serious offense… a felony!”

... continue reading at BAR.

Hunger strike to death in Guantanamo concentration and torture camp continues unabated

From The Independent:

Emaciated and frail, more than 100 men lie on concrete floors of freezing, solitary cells in Guantánamo, silently starving themselves to death.

Stripped of all possessions, even basics such as a sleeping mat or soap, they lie listlessly as guards periodically bang on the steel doors and shout at them to move an arm or leg to prove they are still conscious.

The notorious detention centre is in crisis, suffering a rebellion of unprecedented scale, with most of the camp on lockdown and around two-thirds of the 166 detainees on hunger strike.

This week 40 American military nurses were drafted in to try to stem a mass suicide. The last Brit inside, Shaker Aamer, has said he is prepared to strike to his death.

The US administration does its best to keep prying eyes from the unfolding tragedy but the The Independent has obtained first-hand reports.

Twice a day, the 23 most weak are taken into a room. Their wrists, arms, stomach, legs and head are strapped to a chair and repeated attempts are made to force a tube down their noses into their stomachs. It is an ugly procedure as they gag and wretch, blood dripping from their nostrils. “They won’t let us live in peace and now they won’t let us die in peace,” said detainee, Fayiz Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held for 11 years without charge.

Four are so ill that they lie in shackles in the hospital wing and insiders predict it is only a matter of time before one perishes.

“It is possible that I may die in here,” said Mr Aamer, 44, through his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, recently. “I hope not, but if I do die, please tell my children that I loved them above all else, but that I had to stand up for the principle that they cannot just keep holding people without a trial, especially when they have been cleared for release,” said the father of four, who remains in Camp 5 despite being approved for release more than five years ago. “Sad to say, torture and abuse continue in Guantánamo Bay and the US is throwing away yet more of its dwindling moral authority,” added Mr Stafford Smith.

The protest, which began on 6 February, has now spread through Camp 6 and Camp 5 with an estimated 100 to 130 taking part. These are not the high value detainees kept in Camp 7, the handful charged with terror offences. The hunger strikers are those who have waited a decade or more without trial, including 86 cleared for release but remain trapped because of restrictions imposed by Congress.

... continue reading at The Independent. 

Spain: military police (GC) hid evidence from European human rights watchdog

march against torture

The Spanish military police corps Guardia Civil, particularly infamous for being the police body with the vast majority of denounces for tortures and other abuses, withheld access to European observer of the Commission for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to the facilities where they usually torture Basque and other prisoners. 

They pretended that there were no keys for that allegedly "unused" area in the police station. However a cleaner worker accidentally opened for them a backdoor. 

The Spanish government defends the indefensible and seems to imply that this worker did not have any keys... but some sort of paranormal powers, I guess. The "pact of silence" that rules all-powerful Spanish police continues. 

The CPT's report was very critical with Spain and confirmed that all denounces of tortures are way too credible. The Spanish government again defends the indefensible and shields behind the sad fact that there is not a single firm sentence for tortures, what in fact only evidences the deep implication of the top level judges in covering tortures and other police abuses, which are systematic.

Source: Naiz Info[es] (link1, link2).

Greece: 2000 immigrants go in hunger strike in concentration camps

Some 2000 immigrants kept in the so-called "detention camps" instituted by the quasi-fascist government of Samaras have begun a hunger strike in protest for the deplorable conditions they suffer in them, including torture.

Members of a group called the Union Against Racism and Fascist Violence held a press conference in Athens on Monday to explain the situation at the detention centres. They said police stations are being converted into makeshift detention centres and accused officials of covering up incidents of abuse and even torture. 

Local immigrant community leaders who also spoke at the press conference called on authorities to give them permission to visit with hunger-striking migrants at the detention centers and to provide them access to doctors and lawyers. 

Source: EnetEnglish. 

Dead prisoners in strange circumstances, prisoners in hunger strike: Palestinian, Basque and Guantanamo prisoners dying in the Capitalist gulags

Of course that these are not the only political prisoners suffering brutal abuses but today we have to go over these three apparently different situations yet so similar. They all suffer under the same Empire and Tyranny in any case.

López Peña's strange death

Political prison killer
Xabier López Peña murdered

Let's begin at home, or rather 1400 kilometers far away, in Paris. Xabier López Peña, 54, Basque guerrilla (ETA) and political prisoner at Fleury-Mérogis, near Paris, was denied treatment. When he was finally brought to hospital, his relatives were not informed, becoming only aware via his prisoner comrades, a week later, who told them that he was not in that prison anymore and that they did not know his destiny.  

Since that moment the family began a frantic quest to know where Xabier was, getting to know eventually that he was hospitalized at Pitié-Salpêtrière, not for a heart problem, as was reported  initially, but to get further analysis to know if he needed a bypass or what.

That was on March 18th, seven days after Xabier was moved from prison to that hospital. After another labyrinthine quest, they found out from a nurse (all authorities declined to comment) in which room he was, although the relatives were still not allowed to visit him. Only the attorney Yolanda Molina could and she reported that he was in very bad shape. 

Finally the relatives got permission to visit him but when they arrived they were informed that Xabier had died... thirteen hours earlier in fact. Not even a phone call to inform them. 

Xabier López Peña had suffered an ictus months earlier but instead of keeping him in an emergency room at hospital, he was sent back to prison. All demands for the law to be applied so he could be set in some degree of freedom for his illness to be attended properly were ignored.

The physicians at Pitié-Salpêtrière have not been able to explain his death. The autopsy was performed without the presence of a physician of the trust of the family. The results are still unknown. Instead of being in the intensive care unit, he was in the penitentiary area of the hospital all the time. 

The family and attorney have announced that they will denounce hospital, prison and prefecture for these criminal abuses. 

Source: Ateak Ireki[es] (includes video of the press conference).

Palestine: Maysara Abuhamdia's very similar case

Palestinian political prisoner Maysara Abuhamdia had a similarly cruel destiny in Zionist prisons. Suffering from serious long-term throat problems (later known to be a cancer), he got two biopsies, whose results were never reported, but he was never given any proper treatment he was given "flu shots" (?) which only aggravated his problems, giving him serious chest pain.

Two months later, when he could not even speak anymore and had lost 15 kilos, the doctors saw him again and told him that he had only a few days left of life. He was still not allowed to stay in that hospital but transferred to a remote hospital in the Negev (Naqab) Desert.

Demonstration in protest for Abuhamdia's murder

Maysara Abuhamdia (also written Abuhamdieh) was a Fatah fighter first in Palestine and then in the Lebanese exile. After the Oslo accords, he was denied the right to return, which was only achieved thanks to the personal intervention of Yasser Arafat. He then joined the autonomous Palestinian police force, being arrested in the course of the Second Intifada and charged with arbitrary accusations. 

He was brutally interrogated for months but apparently did not give the Zionists any information. He was first sentenced to 25 years but the prison term extended to 99 years on prosecution's appeal. 

In 2007 he became a victim of the so-called Ramleh slaughterhouse: a Zionist clinic for prisoners where they seem to perform medical experiments Mengele style. Abuhamdia was sent there with a stomach ulcer and later denounced that the Zionist physicians experimented with him without consent. He wrote:

The intentional negligence starts during the treatment, when the doctors receive orders to not cure the patient but to give him painkillers without any restoration of the damaged parts. These instructions come from the Israeli security apparatus, and the goal is to keep the prisoners alive but not cured to be a lesson to others.

He also denounced how Mansour Maqoudeh, was shot in the spine during his arrest by the occupation forces in 2002, which left him paralyzed. He was given injections in his abdomen by the Israeli Prison Service that caused him intestinal damage. Maqoudeh suffers from bouts of convulsions and unconsciousness, and can only urinate through a plastic bag.

Another political prisoner, Khader Adnan, also denounced the Nazi treatment at Ramleh:

Some were beaten occasionally, others were chained by their arms and legs to their hospital beds, still others were placed in some sort of cages and totally ignored. It’s simply a horrifying place.

There are many of such terrible stories about how prisoners are criminally abused by their Zionazi captors until they die.

Abuhamdia's son accused the Palestinian Authority (which is in power without elections via emergency laws) of abandonment and betrayal:

The PA and the Israeli occupation are two sides to the same coin. They both must be annihilated.

Source and more details: Electronic Intifada (link 1, link 2). 

See also: Abuhamdia's daughter's dedicated Facebook blog.

130 Guantanamo prisoners in hunger strike

Against the official US version, which claims that only 31 political prisoners are in hunger strike, the fact seems to be that 130 is the real number (out of 166). This was known by attorney Clive Stafford via a telephone call by prisoner Shaker Aamer. Aamer denounced the worsening of the treatment by the military guards in the US offshore concentration camp, who have been trying to break the solidarity of hunger strikers to no avail. 

Aamer, one of the many political prisoners who are kept hostage without any charges by the USA in their military colony in Cuba, has lost 15 kilos already because of the hunger strike. In Camp V, where Aamer is being held, 66 prisoners are in hunger strike, 15 of them with very low sugar levels and seven already hospitalized. 

Last Thursday, attorneys of the political hostages denounced before the courts in an emergency plea, that the guards have denied clean water to the prisoners and keep the temperature of the jail extremely cold as a way to discourage them. As I said before, to no avail. 

Source: LINyM[es].

Palestinian murdered in Zionist jail

His alleged crime? Throwing stones.

Arafat Jadarat (pictured), 30, died in Zionist custody allegedly of cardiac arrest. His family assures he had no health problems whatsoever before his arrest.

Arafat was taken from his home on February 18, and was held in interrogation in Jalameh Detention Center, and then was transferred to Megiddo Prison. His brother says the Israelis who came for Arafat told him to "say goodbye " to his children. He was accused of throwing stones.

...

Palestinian Authority Minister of Detainees Issa Qaraqe said Jadarat died after being interrogated by Israeli forces and demanded an international investigation into his death, which has caused outrage in the West Bank and Gaza.

Over 4,000 Palestinian prisoners have staged a 24 hour hunger strike on hearing of the young man's death.

There have been marches in protest in Gaza, and Israeli forces in the West Bank clashed with demonstrators in Hebron, Beit Ummar, al-Arrub refugee camp, and Tulkarem, with soldiers firing tear gas and sounds grenades at demonstrators, locals said.

Source and more details at Random Pottins.


Update (Feb 25): the Electronic Intifada has more details on this case or racist colonialist torture and murder. The evidence of torture is clear.

Arafat’s family stated that their son was heavily beaten by the IOF [Israeli occupation forces] during his arrest at the entrance of Sa’eer and that he was screaming from the difficult torture he was subjected to. The martyr’s wife, Ms. Dalal Ayayda, added that the intelligence officer that accompanied the IOF during the arrest requested that they allow[ed] him to return to his home for a moment to say goodbye to his wife and children. She considers this to be an indicator that his death in the prison was premeditated.

Human Rights activist Hassan Karajah is being tortured by the same "investigators" who killed Jadarat and the abuses are similar:

Addameer’s lawyer Samer Sama’an confirmed that Hassan has been subjected to long interrogations by the Shin Bet security forces in Jalameh, and that he is being interrogated by the same investigators that were involved in the martyr Arafat Jaradat’s case. 

Also last minute reports say that the autopsy of Jadarat's body shows that he did not die of a heart attack as was shamelessly claimed by the Zionists.