Ruling says closure of Egunkaria not covered by the Constitution

A Spanish High Court ruling that acquits five former executives of a new defunct Basque-language newspaper of belonging to the armed group ETA questions the paper''s closure, which was shut down as a "precautionary measure" seven years ago.

According to the ruling, there was no evidence that the defendants which included its editor-in-chief, Martxelo Otamendi, Iñaki Uria, Joan Mari Torrealdai, Txema Auzimendi and Xabier Oleaga, had ties to ETA.

The ruling also points out that the closure of Egunkaria was "not directly covered by the Spanish Constitution". "The mistaken vision that anything to do with the Basque language and all culture in that language must be being promoted or controlled by Eta leads to a mistaken interpretation of the facts," the ruling continues to say.

"It was clear from the newspaper''s editorial line that it did not follow Eta''s instructions", it concludes.

The daily Egunkaria was shut down on a judge''s order in 2003 on grounds it assisted ETA. It was founded in 1990, had a circulation of about 15,000 and was the Basque Country''s only newspaper to publish exclusively in the Basque language.

In 2006, Central Court Prosecutor Miguel Angel Carballo determined that there were no grounds for the current court case and requested a stay of proceedings. Despite this, six months later a court hearing was officially announced following private accusation parties, the group Dignity and Justice and the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) which accused the five defendants of "maintaining financial links with the terrorist group".