Generally speaking, torture almost always takes place in secret and so it is difficult to know if it has taken place or not. Members of the Spanish state apparatus have been convicted for mistreatment, torture and even murder of ETA members, the veracity of many torture allegations and the degree to which it occurs is subject to controversy in Spain. However,
Amnesty International claims that torture is a reality in Spain; between 2004 and 2012 over 6,400 torture cases were reported, a figure in contrast to the number of convictions. Pau Pérez-Sales, activist and senior expert assisting both domestic and international tribunals has stressed the degree of impunity surrounding torture in Spain. On 13 September 2017, Amnesty International stated that during a long period, citing a Basque Government's 1978-1999 report, torture was applied extensively in Spain under anti-terrorist provisions, affecting to a large extent the Basque Country, and demanded that the Spanish government admit to its practice, as well as reminding it of its 'obligation' to investigate torture and make reparations to the victims. It also denounced Spain for continuing to evade the application of international standards against torture in its domestic legislation. In addition, it stated that convictions for torture are very infrequent, and highlighted the high number of pardons granted to the few people convicted of such crimes. The NGO also pointed out that torture victims are 'ostracized'. Between 1977 and 2002 there were approximately 5300 claims of
torture having been carried out by police on ETA prisoners. Since then there have been hundreds more accusations. Allegations of torture are mostly related to threats and beatings, and then to lesser degrees to suffocation, forced body positions, undressing and physical exercises. A study of 112 Basques held incommunicado between 2000 and 2005, conducted by the Basque Institute for
Legal Medicine and based on testimonies collected by an NGO, suggests that torture remains a serious problem in Spain. It detected different alleged torture patterns relating to different police forces. The group arrested by the
Civil Guard accused this body of the most severe torture methods. According to former ETA members, the French police never submitted their prisoners to torture. ETA terrorism never targeted French civilians nor security forces and France had a long-standing policy of tolerating ETA presence on its territory since the times of Franco's dictatorship. This policy changed in the late 80s when French President Mitterrand decided that France would no longer be an ETA 'safe-haven' and began co-operation with Spanish authorities and extradition of ETA-members indicted for terrorism to Spain.
Torture cases and convictions One example of an alleged incident is that of Martxelo Otamendi, the editor of a
Basque language newspaper
Egunkaria which was subject to a precautionary closure in 2004 by a Spanish judge due to alleged links with ETA, later found to be ungrounded. Otamendi, among other editors was arrested by the Guardia Civil as a result of the Court order and claims to have been stripped naked, blindfolded, touched with unidentified objects around his genitals and subject to sleep deprivation and simulated execution. Six colleagues who were detained at the same time also claimed to have experienced similar treatment. They were eventually absolved by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional (High Court) in 2010, which also criticized the Judge's decision to close the only newspaper at the time which was fully in the Basque language without more solid constitutional grounds. The Popular Party's government sued Otamendi for defamation but was eventually ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay Otamendi compensation for not taking his allegations seriously nor investigating them. Another case is that of Fernando Elejalde Tapia, arrested minutes after murdering Francisco Javier Gomez Alósegui at the door of his house; Gomez Alósegui was the psychologist of Martutene prison and a public supporter of negotiation with ETA and bringing convicts to jails close to the Basque Country.
Amnesty International reported concern about Elejalde Tapia as a suspected case of torture. After being arrested he was transferred to hospital with "a fractured ear drum, four broken vertebrae in his back, bruising all over his body, blackened eyes, a kidney malfunction and was in a state of semi-consciousness." Ms Leire Gallastegui claimed in 2001 to have been told to choose between "electrodes, her mother's arrest or a broom handle". In December 2010 four Civil Guard police officers were imprisoned for torturing two men suspected of terrorist activities. The police officers were released in 2011 after appealing to the Spanish High Court, which judged the injuries sustained by the suspects to have been caused by a violent arrest. On the 13 of February 1981 Joxe Arregi, an alleged member of ETA, died of
pneumonia in the hospital of Carabanchel prison after spending 9 days in police custody. The forensic report concluded that he was tortured; he showed
second degree burns on the soles of his feet, as well as blows and traumas over his body. Two policemen involved in the interrogation were eventually given sentences of 3 months in prison and a two-year suspension for torturing the detainee. No judgment was made in court as to whether Arregi had died as a result of the torture he received because neither the prosecutor nor the Human Rights Organization party to the case asked the judge to do so. However, a first sentence establishing no connection between torture and death was later overturned on the grounds of the contradictions found on the judge's conclusion. It was reported in the Spanish press that Arregi may have died as a result of being submitted to a torture technique called
la bañera in which the victim's head is placed in a container of dirty water until he or she is obliged to breathe in the liquid which then enters the victims lungs.
Santiago Brouard, doctor and member of the political party
HASI at the time, speculated that it may account for Arregi's broncopneumonia. In September 2014, a Basque report commissioned by the human rights society Argituz and based on the
Istanbul Protocol confirmed the veracity of the 45 torture testimonies analyzed spanning from 1982 to 2010 for detainees held incommunicado under the Antiterrorist Law. The report carried out by over 30 health professionals, especially psychotherapists and psychiatric doctors, hailing from 8 different organizations have stressed the difficulties found to obtain any records due to the incommunicado regime that "facilitates the commission of torture and mistreatment", as well as pointing to an ever-increasing use of
psychological torture techniques." An expert panel appointed by
Mariano Rajoy's cabinet to evaluate the provisions in place for the prevention of torture underscored that "mistreatment cases are not exceptional, but symptoms of structural deficiencies", recommending as well to install CCTV cameras in all areas of the police stations.
International criticism Since 2002 Spain has been criticised several times by
United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) and the
European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for not investigating properly allegations of torture made by ETA members and others suspected of having links to it. Specifically Spain has been found to have violated articles 2, 4 and 14 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and
article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. France was also criticised by CAT for having
deported ETA member Josu Arkauz Arana to Spain in 1997 where he was "in a situation where he was particularly vulnerable to possible abuse". France was found to have violated article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in that case. CAT investigated the case of Kepa Urra in 2002, who claimed to have been tortured by 4 members of the Guardia Civil in 1997 during an operation to dismantle part of ETA. Although the four guardia were initially convicted in a Spanish court of having tortured Urra they were later
pardoned. Spain was found guilty of a violation of articles 2, 4 and 14 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Two years later, in 2004 a
United Nations report written by
Theo van Boven stated that the fact that detainees are held incommunicado for up to 5 days allows abuses to take place, and advised the Spanish government to make changes to this practice. In 2012, the UN Committee Against Torture ruled against Spain again, this time for not investigating accusations of torture made by Oskar Gallastegi, who had been sentenced to 26 years in jail for his role in the murder of a judge in the Basque Country in 2001. Again in 2002 Amnesty International released a report criticising the Spanish government for its policy of holding detainees incommunicado. The report states that it had "received some very serious and highly detailed reports, which appear to be corroborated by medical evidence. Many of the allegations referred to the practice of
asphyxiation with plastic bags; repeated kicks and blows of the hand on the head or testicles; forced physical exercises for long periods of time; claims of sexual harassment or abuse; threats of execution, rape, miscarriage or injury to partners and relatives." In June 2014 Amnesty International reported on the 'impunity and denial' of the Spanish authorities regarding torture. The human rights organization stated that it had continued to receive allegations of torture and mistreatment inflicted by state security forces since 1987, the year when Spain ratified the
United Nations Convention against Torture. The international organization goes on to say that "the Spanish authorities do not take seriously the gravity of torture as a crime of international law, and meanwhile, the victims of torture remain defenseless." In the same report Amnesty International says that successive Spanish governments "have not established sufficient measures and mechanisms necessary to prevent torture taking place while in the custody of its security forces, e.g. the suspension of the incommunicado regime, which remains in place, or the introduction of CCTV in all the places where detainees are held, nor have they implemented provisions leading to thorough, independent and impartial investigation of torture when it takes place." In 2015 the ECtHR found Spain guilty of violating the procedural aspects of article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the case brought against it by Arratibel Garciandia. Most recently, in May 2016, the ECtHR ruled against Spain for not investigating properly allegations of torture made by Xabier Beorlegi. In January 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Spain for degrading and inhuman treatment inflicted by the Civil Guard to Mattin Sarasola and Igor Portu, two ETA members convicted of the
T-4 bombings in Madrid. For the first time the tribunal ruled on content, and not just on form, i.e. Spain not investigating torture, for which Spain has been condemned 9 more times by the same court during the last years. The court thus supports a previous ruling by a Basque court which condemned 4 Civil Guard officers for torture, a sentence that was overturned by the Spanish High Court. It constitutes a violation of Article 3 of the Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights. In May 2019, fifteen independent experts making up the UNO Committee against Torture resolved that Gorka Lupiañez, condemned for ETA membership and other related offences by Spanish tribunals, was subjected to torture by the Civil Guard in 2007 during incommunicado detention, using methods such as bag suffocation, battering, sleep deprivation, and death threats, as denounced by the victim; following Lupiañez's denouncement, the Spanish authorities accused him of "following ETA's agenda". The Committee once more urges Spanish authorities to stop incommunicado detentions for their relation to torture, reminds them that nothing justifies it, as well as demanding that they "pursue diligent, immediate and impartial investigations". Following a long process pursued by Spanish authorities to extradite Iratxe Sorzabal, an ETA member, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected in December 2020 a 4th
European Arrest Warrant on the grounds that Spain did not make the efforts necessary to investigate evidence of torture inflicted on her. The tribunal bases its resolution on the report presented by the
IRCT, International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, and IFEG on the risks of ignoring torture. In January 2021, the ECtHR condemned again Spain for the passivity shown in conducting proper investigation on serious torture allegations denounced in by Íñigo González, member of the disbanded organization Ekin, following his detention in 2011 by the Civil Guard in Pamplona on orders of the judge
Fernando Grande-Marlaska, so breaching the article 3 of the
European Convention of Human Rights; a report confirmed he suffered
post-traumatic stress syndrome. The
Audiencia Nacional demanded to launch an investigation, but the judge did not act accordingly, "for absence of leads"; the
Constitutional Court did not endorse González. The tribunals refused to name the Civil Guard officers identified by the detainee, a position the ECtHR criticizes in the sentence. Spain is liable to a €20,000 compensation to González for damages. ECtHR has ruled ten times against Spain for not investigating torture since 2010.
Claims of false torture allegations Successive Spanish Governments have consistently stated that, in general terms, torture claims by Basque detainees are part of a tactic by ETA to gain political capital and sympathy as well as to bog down the legal process, rather than a systematic practice of torture by Spanish authorities. As stated by
El País, there is no evidence to show that the Spanish security forces have systematically used torture against ETA suspects. According to Secretary General of the Unified Police Syndicate José Manuel Sánchez-Fornet, there exist 'absolutely exceptional cases of mistreatment' with a small number of trials and convictions of members of the Police and Guardia Civil, but he also avows that anti-terrorist legislation 'helps cases of torture' happen. Just the opposite, the Coordinating Committee for the Prevention of Torture has underscored the obstacles set by the successive Spanish governments to carry out proper investigation, failing to meet the most basic requirements expected for investigations on torture allegations, with only two severe cases leading to an effective conviction of police officials, both condemnations warranted by judges in the Basque Country, and not Madrid tribunals. Official court papers make no mention of these details. A similar manual was confiscated from the ETA cell "Commando Araba" in 1998, recommending all ETA detainees to allege torture, reminding them that "standing behind you are the press, local, youth and international collectives and, with a bit of luck, some opportunist and doubtful political party." However, the NGO (TAT) has pointed out that this document is totally different in style, tone and language to other 'manuals' found in the possession of the "Commando Araba". TAT has stated that they suspect the document was created by the police. ==Solidarity==