Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2002 - Spain

NGO offices closed41

On 27th August 2002, police closed down the head offices of the Group Against Torture (Torturaren Aurkako Taldea) and the Basque organisation of political prisoners' families'"Etxerat" in Bilbao. This was in application of a ruling by Judge Garzon under the decision to suspend the activities of Herri Batasuna, political wing of the terrorist group ETA, for three years. On 2nd October, the judge ordered that the closure of the associations' offices be ended, but gave no specific reason why they had been closed and no justification for re-opening them.


[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

41. See Letter to the President of the Government, 19 September 2002.

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