22 July 1999 Edition
Basque leaders freed
Twenty-three members of the National Executive of the Basque Pro-independence party Herri Batasuna (HB) were released in the early hours of Wednesday 21 June after serving 20 months of seven-year sentences.
The release of the party leadership, the mahialkides, came as the Spanish Constitutional Tribunal determined that the charge of terrorism collaboration against the 23 members of the Executive was unjustified. The leaders of HB were sentenced in November 1997 to seven years imprisonment after they tried to broadcast ETA's video, The Democratic Alternative, a peace offer from ETA, on the free public television slot offered to political parties during the campaign for the 1995 general elections.
Herri Batasuna national executive member Karmela Landa, one of 22 party leaders released this week. The former European MEP was a regular and popular visitor to Sinn Féin Ard Fheiseanna until his unjust imprisonment
The release of the party leadership, the mahialkides, came as the Spanish Constitutional Tribunal determined that the charge of terrorism collaboration against the 23 members of the Executive was unjustified. The leaders of HB were sentenced in November 1997 to seven years imprisonment after they tried to broadcast ETA's video, The Democratic Alternative, a peace offer from ETA, on the free public television slot offered to political parties during the campaign for the 1995 general elections.
Herri Batasuna national executive member Karmela Landa, one of 22 party leaders released this week. The former European MEP was a regular and popular visitor to Sinn Féin Ard Fheiseanna until his unjust imprisonment