Belgium and was a sanctuary for E.T.A members in the past
It was the first country to extradite ETA, but refused to do so between 1984 and 2005.
03/25/2016 - 05:00 H.
The attacks this week have highlighted the ease with which the jihadists have been operating in Belgium, especially in its capital. However, not only Islam, but violent organizations around the world have been present in this country, starting with ETA. Although Belgium was the first country to deport about ETA claimed by Spain in 1984 even before France-, the situation would soon change.
Brussels is one of the world capitals of arms trafficking, so many armed movements maintained representatives there, where also was relatively safe to make contact with like-minded organizations (ETA did, at least, with the IRA and mayflies Cells Communist Combat Belgian). The city was also considered the safest way to travel to training camps in South Yemen exit point, via Rome and Beirut, led by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which were trained a dozen ETA members.
Read more: Bombings in Brussels: Belgium and was a sanctuary for ETA members in the past.
It is believed that Belgian banks were also used by the organization to receive transactions, such as $ 900,000 allegedly sent by Libya to ETA in 1985 through Bruxelles Lambert Bank. But above all, the militants benefited from the reluctance of a Belgian judiciary who refused to authorize the extradition to Spain of those ETA members arrested in Belgium. For example, in 1982 Juan José Arrese and Fernando Bilbao avoided 'in extremis' deportation after being arrested by Belgian police when a judge granted them a residence permit.
The following year, Joseba Artetxe 'Txistu' and Salvador Corral Ormazábal 'Yosu', were intercepted by Belgian agents when carrying a cargo of ammunition in a car. This time there was no doubt: both were sent to Spain (which would eventually acquitted by the High Court). But in retaliation, ETA placed a bomb-pm at the Palace of Justice in Antwerp, which caused no casualties.
Since that year no longer any extradition occur until 2005, when the Belgian Supreme Court granted Diego Ugarte Lopez de Arkaute and Jon Lopez Gomez, considered responsible for the murder of socialist Fernando Buesa and his bodyguard. To this followed, in 2010, Luis Maria Zengotitabengoa, accused of having rented a van loaded with explosives that the Civil Guard intercepted in Zamora and in 2011 the Ventura Tomé, a "historic" 80s But those intervening two decades previous, Belgium served as an "alternative base" for those who had problems of residence in France, a flow that accelerated after the government of François Mitterrand accept start collaborating with Felipe González on terrorism.
Accusations of torture
The most famous case was that of Raquel Garcia and Jose Luis Moreno, suspected collaborators of Vizcaya command. arrested in the town of Vilvoorde in 1993. Shortly thereafter, a Belgian judge took into consideration the allegations that incriminating statements against them, based on the testimony of ETA member Juan Ramon Rojo, had been achieved "through ill-treatment". Three years later, the Belgian government halted the extradition, and both were released.
The same happened in 1996 with the alleged ETA member Enrique Fagoagas, 'Peixotin', arrested on arrival in Belgium from Venezuela carrying a false passport. Although he was not granted political asylum, shortly after he was released and allowed to obtain a residence permit. The State Council also ordered in 1998 to suspend the expulsion of Ricardo Cruz Maiztegui to Mexico, authorized by the Belgian Government.
The tension between the different Belgian institutions for the presence of ETA members in the country is one of the reasons why achieving extradition from Belgium has been often much more complicated than from other European states. The judiciary seems especially sensitive to allegations of torture against the Spanish authorities, such as those made by lawyer Paul Bekaert: even as recently as 2011, this could prevent Natividad Jauregui, an alleged member of the Comando Vizcaya and suspicious of at least six attacks, who lived quietly until his arrest in Ghent, could be deported to Spain.
At that time, Bekaert claims that, after 32 years, had been the "reasonable time" in which it was reasonable to consider extradition. And less, he said, to our country, "a democracy except for Basque prisoners, tortured, special laws or incorrect prison policy concerns." The argument convinced the Ghent Court trying the case, which ruled in favor of ETA, ensuring that there were "grounds to suspect that Natividad Jáuregui could suffer a violation of their human rights in Spain".
In 2015, the program of Four "A New Time" could even locate Jauregui living in Ghent under the false name of Jaione, although the former ETA militant declined to speak with reporters. Cases like this, however, are the exception, and today Belgium can no longer be considered an 'alternative sanctuary' for ETA members, as it was once.
http://www.elconfidencial.com/mundo...tuario-para-los-etarras-en-el-pasado_1173928/
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Natividad Jáuregui terrorist shot in the neck under a false Facebook account unpunished enjoying a seafood platter in Gante.
