Basque political chronicle: Otegi freed but more arrests and tortures

Basque Nationalist Left bloc spokesman, Arnaldo Otegi, was set free yesterday after spending 15 months in prision on political charges. Upon his release he declared that:

Fifteen months ago I entered prision and then there was, like there has been for so many years, a political problem in this country. This problem remains being real, it is an unsolved problem that, in my opinion, can only be adressed through dialogue and negotiation. And through dialogue and negotiation this country needs to meet a scenary of peace and democracy that allows us to decide on our future and, simultaneously, achieve freedom for all Basque political prisioners. That will be my task.

Notice that the term political prisioners is used indistinctly by this movement to refer to all prisioners whose arrest is related to political activities of any sort, no matter if they have been charged with opinion crimes or with violent ones.

Meanwhile another person, Maider Caminos, was arrested in Astrain upon orders of special judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska, without clear charges of any sort. This judge of the special tribunal Audiencia Nacional was recently also involved in the arrest of two other people without defined charges, who have denounced brutal tortures while in police custody.