Morning Star.png Hero's Welcome Basque Leader Out Of Jail James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 2 March 2016 Basque nationalist leader Arnaldo Otegi received an enthusiastic welcome from supporters on his release from more than six years in prison yesterday. The Sortu (Create) party general secretary walked free from jail in Logrono, where he had been held since 2009 for trying to rebuild banned separatist party Batasuna. Arnaldo Otegi leaves jail with his South African bag in his hand He was also prosecuted for glorifying terrorism by comparing a jailed member of armed group Eta to Nelson Mandela. He was met at the gate by dozens of supporters chanting "independence." >From a platform outside the prison, Mr Otegi said: "Today, a political prisoner goes free," and he pledged to keep struggling for peace and independence. Last month, Mr Otegi was denied a visit from former US political prisoner Angela Davis. Free Otegi, Free Them All campaign spokesman Urko Aiartza said that a homecoming event had been arranged for last night in Mr Otegi's home town of Elgoibar. The welcome party will include a concert by Basque ska-punk musician Fermin Muguruza, a prominent supporter of the "Free Otegi, bring Basque political prisoners home" declaration. A mass rally has also been arranged for Saturday at the San Sebastian indoor velodrome, which seats up to 8,500 people. Mr Aiartza said that National Court judge Eloy Velasco had ordered police to attend the event to identify anyone committing "glorification of terrorism offences." Founded in 2011, Sortu rejects violence and argues only for an independent Basque country within the European Union. The party was briefly banned from contesting elections that year on the grounds that it was another iteration of Batasuna. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2c8d-Spain-Basque-nationalist-leader-l eaves-jail-to-a-heros-welcome#.VtZxrvl9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2c8d-Spain-Basque-nationalist-leader-le aves-jail-to-a-heros-welcome#.VtZxrvl9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
