Josu Ternera will be a free man on Thursday. The Paris Court of Appeal ordered the house arrest under electronic bracelet of this former head of the Basque separatist organization ETA, imprisoned in France since his arrest in May 2019. The Court of Appeal had ordered on July 1 a feasibility investigation into the electronic surveillance release of this 69-year-old man, whose real name is Josu Antonio Urrutikoetxea Bengoetxea.
During a hearing on Wednesday during which Josu Ternera appeared, the president of the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal indicated that the report had "concluded on the feasibility of placing an electronic bracelet".
A "desire for appeasement"
"I welcome a decision which signals a desire for appeasement and justice that is rendered with dignity," said Me Laure Heinich, lawyer for Josu Ternera. "It is a logical decision, respectful of the presumption of innocence", also welcomed Me Laurent Pasquet-Marinacce, the other lawyer of Josu Ternera, stressing that his client "is registered at the Sorbonne in 3rd year of 'History' and that it will be 'hosted by a teacher from the Ecole normale supérieure'.
This independence leader is the subject of a European arrest warrant and two extradition requests from the Spanish authorities. The European arrest warrant concerns his alleged participation in unauthorized meetings in 2000. Examined during the hearing on July 1, the case was placed under advisement on September 30.
Regarding the first extradition request, which relates to the assassination of a Michelin executive in Vittoria on June 25, 1980, the Court of Appeal had requested additional information on July 1.
No discount to Spain
Me Laurent Pasquet-Marinacce denounced the "considerable delay" taken for the examination of these files, a "delay" of which, according to him, are "accountable the Spanish authorities" who "are not able to justify why they want to judge Mr. . Urrutikoetxea ”.
The other extradition request relates to his alleged involvement in an attack on a barracks of the Spanish Civil Guard, which left 11 dead in 1987 in Zaragoza (north). The Court of Appeal approved it in September 2019, but Mr. Ternera appealed to the Supreme Court.
On July 1, the Court of Appeal also refused a second European arrest warrant targeting "crimes against humanity", of which the Spanish justice accuses Mr. Ternera between 2001 and 2007, due to "inaccuracies" in particular on the qualification and dating of the facts. This judgment was not the subject of a cassation appeal, the decision is therefore final. Before being eventually handed over to Spain, he must, in any event, be retried in France.
Elected to the Basque Autonomous Parliament
After more than sixteen years on the run, the former Basque leader was arrested on May 16, 2019 in the parking lot of a French hospital in the Alps where he was going to be treated. From the end of the 1970s he was the head of the ETA political apparatus.
Elected in 1998 to the Spanish Basque Autonomous Parliament, Josu Ternera was appointed in 1999 as one of the three negotiators of ETA in the ultimately aborted peace process. It was he who, on May 3, 2018, announced the dissolution of the organization.
He was arrested for the first time in France in 1989, in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) then sentenced to 10 years in prison and deported to Spain after his release in 1996.
Society
Saint-Jean-de-Luz: A human chain of 600 people for Basque prisoners
France
ETA: Former leader of the Basque organization Josu Ternera arrested in France
- Justice
- Terrorism
- Electronic bracelet
- Jail
- Pays Basque
- Eta