Segi is a

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

pro-independence and revolutionary

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

organization. It forms part of the

Basque National Liberation Movement The Basque National Liberation Movement ( es, Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Vasco, MLNV; Basque: Euskal Nazio Askapenerako Mugimendua, "ENAM") was an umbrella term that comprised all social, political and armed organizations orbiting around th ...

and is aligned with

Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (, Basque for "Nationalist Workers' Committees") is a Basque left-wing nationalist and separatist trade union operating mainly in Spain currently led by Garbiñe Aranburu. It was created in 1974 by Jon Idigoras among others. They are part of ...

and

Batasuna Batasuna (; en, Unity) was a Basque nationalist political party. Based mainly in Spain, it was banned in 2003, after a court ruling declared proven that the party was financing ETA with public money. The party is included in the "European Unio ...

. Segi is proscribed as a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

organisation (as a member of ETA) by both the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and French authorities as well as the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

as a whole. , 29 May 2006 In its decision, on 27 February 2007, the Grand Chamber of the

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...

(ECJ) dismissed the appeal of the illegal Basque organisation "Gestoras Pro Amnistia" and Segi members against their dismissal by the

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the E ...

with claims for damages suffered as a result of inclusion in the "terrorist list". The UK intervened with Spain – it was the only other EU state to do so, as a symbol of the support of the rest of the European Council.

Background

In 2002 Segi was classed as a "

" organization by the

Spanish National Court The Audiencia Nacional (; en, National Court) is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those ...

magistrate Judge

Baltasar Garzón Baltasar Garzón Real (; born 26 October 1955) is a former Spanish judge. Garzón formerly served on Spain's central criminal court, the ''Audiencia Nacional'', and was the examining magistrate of the ''Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5'', ...

, thus banning it as a component of

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

. Garzón had previously banned the two other Basque youth organizations that preceded Segi: Jarrai and Haika. Spanish and other European courts have banned a number of ETA-related organizations such as newspapers – ''

Egin Egin may refer to: * ''Egin'' (newspaper), a defunct bilingual Basque-Spanish newspaper * Eğin, the name for the town of Kemaliye, Turkey, until about 1923 * Egin, Idaho, United States, an unincorporated community * Yuri Egin, an anime-only cha ...

'' (1998),

Egunkaria ''Egunkaria'' (Basque for ''The Daily'') for thirteen years was the only fully Basque language newspaper in circulation until it was closed down on 20 February 2003 by the Spanish authorities due to allegations of an illegal association with E ...

(2003); youth organisations – Jarrai (1999), Haika (2001), Segi (2002); prisoner associations – Askatasuna (2002) and Gestoras Pro-Amnistia (2003) and political parties such as Herri Batasuna (1997) and its successor Batasuna (2003). All those decisions have been based on the proved direct coordination of such organisations with ETA (i.e. the organisations have been declared "members of a terrorist group" and of "cooperation with terrorist groups" by helping in the recruitment of new members and supporting ETA's finances). According to ''

An Phoblacht ''An Phoblacht'' (Irish pronunciation: ; en, "The Republic") is a formerly weekly, and currently monthly newspaper published by Sinn Féin in Ireland. From early 2018 onwards, ''An Phoblacht'' has moved to a magazine format while remaining an ...

'' the case descended into a farce when another judge in the Spanish National Court considered that Garzón’s arguments "were not valid" and released all the detainees. However another report suggests that the Supreme Court ruled they were a terrorist organization, but had not been placed on the country's terrorist list before the court's January 19 ruling.

Support from abroad

Ógra Shinn Féin Ógra Shinn Féin (colloquially known as Republican Youth, , and formerly, officially known as Sinn Féin Republican Youth, ga, Sinn Féin Óige Phoblachtach, from 2012 to March 2018) is the youth wing of the Irish political party Sinn Féin. ...

(the youth wing of political party

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

), which maintains fraternal relations with Segi,Youth Parties Guide
, has called for the "immediate release of our comrades in Euskal Herria". It has begun an online petition to demand the reversal of the decision to declare Segi to be an illegal and terrorist organization. The petition claims that the Spanish Government has "decided to brand a completely legitimate political group as terrorists in an attempt to subvert the ever present Basque national liberation struggle". It is also campaigning for the release of the National Executive of Segi, who were arrested on a protest and were sentenced to 6 years imprisonment. Ógra Shinn Féin has passed a motion in support of Segi at a recent congress, declaring their support.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segi Politics of Spain Basque politics Secessionist organizations Terrorism in Spain Organizations based in Europe designated as terrorist Left-wing militant groups in Spain