U.S. Intel Hub to Counter Islamism In Spain: Cable

The U.S. Embassy in Madrid proposed setting up an intelligence hub in the northeastern region of Catalonia to counter a “major center of radical Islamist activity,” according to a U.S. cable obtained by WikiLeaks and published Saturday by the newspaper El Pais. The cable, dated October 2, 2007, said U.S. and Spanish authorities had identified [...]

Diplomatic cables give details on how US tried to influence Guantanamo Bay accountability cases in Spain

The US embassy in Madrid briefed Washington on the request of the ‘Association for the Dignity of Prisoners’ to the Audienca Nacional in March 2009 to indict six Bush Administration officials for creating a legal framework that allegedly permitted torture. The association tried to steer this case directly to National Court Investigating Judge Baltasar Garzon, [...]

Diplomatic cables on the Spanish Audienca Nacional Terrorist Judgments in the Abderrahaman and Madrid bombings cases

Good summary of the case in cable 06MADRID1914 from July 2006. The Spanish Supreme Court announced July 24  that it had annulled the six-year prison sentence handed down  in September by Spain’s National Court against accused  terrorist Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, known in the media as the  “Spanish Taliban.” Abderrahaman, a Spanish national captured in Afghanistan [...]

European Court of Human Rights says that Spanish officials accused of murdering two alleged ETA members received a fair trial

In the case Vaquero Hernández and others against Spain the European Court of Human Rights ruled that no fair trial rights had been breached in the trial against 4 Guardia Civil officers and 1 Civil Governor.   Spain’s anti-terrorism court, the Audienca Nacional,  had  found the applicants guilty of torturing and murdering ETA Suspects in [...]

Spain police on trial for alleged torture of ETA members

[JURIST] A group of Spanish police officers went on trial Tuesday for the alleged torture of two ETA activists  in Basque. The alleged victims, Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, were convicted and sentenced to 1,040 years in prison after an airport bombing in Madrid that killed two people. They claim that the police mistreated them [...]

Basque government in Spain calls ETA cease-fire meaningless

The Washington Post reports that the armed Basque separatist group ETA, under pressure from political allies to renounce violence and weakened repeatedly by the arrests of its leaders, announced another cease-fire Sunday, suggesting it might turn to a political process in its quest for an independent homeland.The new pledge from ETA, which has been fighting [...]

Spanish Congress Rejects Proposal to Prohibit Use of Niqab or Burka in Public Spaces

On July 20, 2010, the Congreso de los Diputados (the lower house of Spain’s parliament) opposed a proposal from the Partido Popular (PP) requesting that the government prohibit the use of the niqab or the burka,  the veils worn by Muslim women that cover most of the female body or face in public spaces. This [...]

Guantanamo update

Judicial decisions Federal Court maintains stay on Khadr habeas petition(JURIST) The US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday allowed Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr to amend his 2004 habeas corpus petition, but refused to lift the stay on the petition pending the conclusion of his military commission. The petition was stayed [...]

Spain: Reform of Criminal Code introduces new terrorism offences

On 9 June, the Senate approved the reform of the Spanish Criminal Code.  The new Code will introduce the possibility for a judge to order a person who has served his sentence for a terrorism offence to be subject to “parole”, through restrictions similar to control orders, for up to ten years. The Code also [...]

Madrid airport ETA bombers given 1,000-year sentences

Spain’s National Court has convicted three members of the Basque separatist group ETA of murder, attempted murder and participation in a terror attack and sentenced them to 1,040 years in jail each, although they will not spend more than 40 years in prison, the maximum term for terrorist crimes in Spain. They were found responsible [...]