Basque Extradition 'Invalid'

A judge in the North has thrown out attempts to extradite a Basque man because of lack of specific details about the charges allegedly linking him with terrorism, writes Carla Liébana

The Recorder of Belfast, Tom Burgess, ruled the European Arrest Warrant for the extradition to Spain of Arturo 'Beñat' Villanueva Arteaga invalid yesterday.

Villanueva Arteaga faced charges of membership of an illegal terrorist organisation called Jarrai, a pro-independence political youth group that acted in the 1990s and was supposed to be linked with ETA.

In 2007, the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced a lot of Jarrai members to jail terms, but he fled abroad without being tried.

He has been living in west Belfast for more than six years but on 22 April he was arrested and brought before the court with a view to him being extradited to Spain, as was indicated in the Warrant issued by High Court of Spain two months previously.

Although it was claimed that he carried out violent and coercive actions in the Basque Region from 1994 to 2000, the judge said there were no enough references about where and when the alleged attacks had taken place and what had been the specific targets.

Besides, he said it was also a lack of specific details about attendance at meetings, interviews or other evidence to show his was member of Jarrai.

He explained that the time period of the activities of Jarrai are properly set out and that it would be open to the court to decide that the scale of their activity - around 6,000 incidents - may be sufficient to allow the requested person to have sufficient particularity as to the activities of the group.

However, he added: "But that is not the point on which my decision is made. It is the question of particularity as to his membership of that group which is missing."

Explaining his case, Villanueva said that he had always worked "politically, peacefully and publicly" in defence of Basque rights, and he criticised the way the judiciary and the authorities from Spain dealt with these kind of political cases, which is not the right way and breach any kind of principles.

Meanwhile, the Recorder is also considering another Spanish extradition case about convicted Basque terrorist Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos.

De Juana, who served a sentence for 25 murders, is currently claimed for glorifying terrorism, which carries a two-year jail sentence. His case was heard last week and the judge will give his decision soon.

(CL/BMcC)