Hundreds of jubilant Basque nationalists took to the streets across the Basque Country early yesterday to welcome 22 members of the former leadership of Herri Batasuna, the political wing of ETA, as they were released from jail after serving 20 months on charges of giving support to terrorists.
The 23rd member of the executive council, Mr Jon Idigorras, the former party spokesman, had been released in May last year on health grounds.
The entire Herri Batasuna executive council was found guilty of "apology for terrorism" after it aired a pro-ETA video in its legally allotted electoral slot on national television in the 1996 election campaign.
The 30-second video, which was strongly criticised by moderate Basque nationalists and deemed illegal by the electoral commission, showed three masked and armed men beneath an ETA banner calling for self-determination for the Basque people. Several members of the executive council were national or regional parliamentary deputies and thus enjoyed parliamentary privilege giving them the right to be tried before the Supreme Court, which sentenced them to seven years, rather than a lower court.
Their lawyers immediately appealed the December 1997 Supreme Court verdict and sentences, and it has taken until this week for the Constitutional Court to reach a decision. On Tuesday night, the country's highest court of appeal announced that the sentences imposed were excessive for the crimes committed, and that the broadcasting of a pro-ETA video was not the same as giving cover or support to an armed group. It was an eight to four majority verdict.
The Constitutional Court ruling is a judicial rather than a political decision, but it has inevitably been interpreted as a straw in the wind regarding the government's attitude to the peace process. It has been generally welcomed by the majority of political parties and social groups. The only opposition has come from the victims of terrorism and their families.
Speaking from Beirut on a three-day Middle Eastern trip, the Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, said his government welcomed the decision. His spokesman, Mr Josep Pique, confirmed that the government would be considering its next move. "Circumstances have changed over the past year. Spaniards are now more hopeful and optimistic for peace in the Basque Country," he said.
The Socialist leader, Mr Joaquin Almunia, also welcomed the decision to free the 23 men and women. "This has shown that there is a justice for those who have shown they do not believe in the judicial system. Those who attack our constitution have been the ones to benefit from it," he said in Madrid yesterday.
The latest decision comes just 10 months after Eta declared a unilateral ceasefire which has, by and large, held firm. There is a real hope now of progress. Herri Batasuna, which changed its name before last October's election to Euskal Herritarrok, elected a new executive council after the previous one was jailed.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, last night welcomed the releases. In a statement he recalled that Sinn Fein has consistently called for the releases on the grounds that "their imprisonment was contrary to international standards of civil justice and human rights."