Zelaia and Barbado arrested after appearing on the balcony of the Vitoria military government

The platform Ankerkeria stop had called for a demonstration today at 6:30 pm to protest against the order for the capture of the youths Aitor Zelaia and Galder Barbado convicted for “kale borroka”. Earlier, around 5 p.m., the two young men got to work appeared surprised on the balcony of the Vitoria-Gasteiz military government, wearing the blue T-shirts that hundreds of people have worn for months in support. Zelaia and Barbado have remained close hour and a half in the place, until the Ertzaintza broke into the building and arrested him.

They were placed in police vans to be taken to Zaballa prison. Those arrested were dismissed to applause by the dozens of people who gathered in front of the official building and chanted shouts of encouragement.

At the beginning of 2021, Zelaia and Barbado were sentenced to four years in prison for the offense of depositing weapons and ammunition. After the appeals were completed, they were given a voluntary 10-day jail term on September 15. So on September 25, the deadline to voluntarily go to prison passed. and since then they were liable to be arrested at any moment.

‘In the eyes of the National Court, all Basque activists are guilty’

The demonstration called by the ANkerkeriari Stop platform took place after the arrest of Zelaia and Barbado, around 7 p.m.

In statements to the media after the demonstration ended, Maddalen Muguruza and Miren Lapitz denounced that “after a four-year trial” Aitor Zelaia and Galder Barbado were arrested, which they considered “the repetition of a script that had already been written.” written.” “In the eyes of the National Court, all Basque militants are guilty and do not hesitate to use all the mechanisms at their disposal to punish this militancy,” she added.

They have described what happened as “nonsense” and have demanded the release of the youths, “as well as the need for Euskal Herria to move towards a framework in which these judicial processes full of cruelty do not take place.”

Finally, they wanted to thank the Basque society for the “wave of solidarity that has emerged again in the face of injustice”.

The case

The two youths were arrested on February 7, 2019 in connection with the discovery a year earlier of a drum containing explosive materials in the town of Durana, in Arrazua-Ubarrundia. They spent six months in prison and after being provisionally released, they were tried two years later.

The trial against them took place in January 2021 at the National Court. In February, the two youths were sentenced to four years in prison, one year of supervised release and 10 years of disqualification. They therefore appealed the verdict and two years later, at the end of May, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict.

Since then, there have been several protests against the conviction. There was one in June massive solidarity demonstration in Amurrio and there have been several in recent weeks protest actions.