Garzon summons Mayor of Hernani for calling plenary

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Marian Beitialarrangoitia, Mayor of Hernani. Photo: EFE

Spanish High Court judge Baltasar Garzón summoned the Mayor of the Basque town of Hernani for calling a plenary session for Friday.

According to Garzon, Marian Beitialarrangoitia broke a ruling that barred the Basque left-wing party ANV from running in general elections in March and suspended their activities for three years over links to Batasuna.

The Supreme Court outlawed Batasuna on grounds that it was part of ETA.

Beitialarrangoitia, who will appear in court next April 30th, might be accused of disobeying a court order and breaking preventive measures.

The Basque Mayor was acquitted of praising terrorism last January 24th over her conduct during a political rally in Pamplona/Iruña.

Marian Beitialarrangoitia took part in a political rally of the left-wing party ANV to present the list of candidates for the March parliamentary vote. During the rally, Beitialarrangoitia requested a round of applause for Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, two presumed members of the armed Basque group ETA arrested at that time.

The High Court judge considered the acts did not constitute a crime, judicial sources reported. Beitialarrangoitia said in court she did not mean to "praise" the armed Basque group ETA but to express her feelings towards the Basque prisoners.

Friday session

During firday's session, town councilors at Hernani rejected a proposal that asked for the resignation of all the town councillors that did not condemn ETA's violence.

The proposal was supported by PSE-EE (three seats), PNV(two seats), EA (two seats) and PP (one seat) but rejected by the ANV councillors (eight seats). It resulted in a tie after the EB councillor abstained and rejected afterwards taking into account the mayor's catsing vote.