European Court rules against Spain on Otegi ‘slandering’ king

Arnaldo Otegi

THE European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Spain violated jailed pro-Basque independence leader Arnaldo Otegi's freedom of expression by convicting him of slandering King Juan Carlos by calling him the chief of torturers.

The court also ordered Spain to pay Arnaldo Otegi €20,000 in compensation.

Otegi was sentenced to a year in jail by Spain's Supreme Court in the case in 2005.

In 2003, Otegi told reporters the king is:

Maximum chief of the Spanish Army, in other words, the person responsible for the torturers.

The European Court said the remark was not personal and referred solely to the king's institutional responsibility – a judgment that could apply to the Queen of England.

• • * In June 2007, Arnaldo Otegi began a sentence for "glorifying terrorism" and was released from prison in August 2008. In October 2009, he was arrested again for attempting to put the banned political party Batasuna back together.

King Juan Carlos of Spain