34 Facts About Arnaldo Otegi

Arnaldo Otegi Mondragon was born on 6 July 1958 and is a politician from the Basque Country who has been the General Secretary of Basque nationalist party EH Bildu since 2017.

Arnaldo Otegi was member of the Basque Parliament for both Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarrok.

Arnaldo Otegi was a convicted member of the ETA, an armed separatist organization, in his early years.

Arnaldo Otegi was one of the key negotiators during the unsuccessful peace talks in Loiola and Geneva, in 2006.

Arnaldo Otegi headed the party Batasuna, declared illegal in 2003 due to its relationship with ETA, but continued talks with Jesus Egiguren from the Spanish PSOE party in order to reach a compromise leading to lasting peace.

In June 2007, Arnaldo Otegi was convicted of "praising terrorism", imprisoned, and then released from prison in August the following year.

Arnaldo Otegi was released from prison on 1 March 2016, with the European Court of Humans Rights ruling against Spain for the Spanish National Court's breach of the defendant's right to have an impartial trial, for which he had spent 6 years in prison.

Arnaldo Otegi had already received a favorable ruling by that same European court 5 years earlier, when it was ruled that Spanish courts violated his right of freedom of speech in 2003, when he was given a one year prison sentence for slander against the Spanish king.

Arnaldo Otegi was chosen as candidate for the post of Lehendakari by EH Bildu for the Basque parliamentary election of 2016 but the electoral committee invalidated his candidacy due to his penal disqualification.

Arnaldo Otegi was born on 6 July 1958 in Elgoibar, Gipuzkoa, in what later would become the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

Arnaldo Otegi holds a university degree in philosophy and literature, is married and a father of two children.

Arnaldo Otegi was a militant of the abertzale left movement from a young age.

Arnaldo Otegi was found guilty of taking part in the kidnapping of the Basque businessman Luis Abaitua and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Arnaldo Otegi spent three years imprisoned and was released in 1990.

HB won six seats at the election with Arnaldo Otegi initially failing to be elected, but on 27 September 1995, he became a member of the Basque Parliament when he substituted a party colleague.

The ensuing power vacuum was filled by Joseba Permach and Arnaldo Otegi, chosen to become the new provisional leaders of Herri Batasuna.

Since then, Arnaldo Otegi has been the major spokesman for the movement, first in Herri Batasuna, and later in Euskal Herritarrok.

Arnaldo Otegi played a key role in the formulation of what would be known as the Lizarra-Garazi Agreements, or "Declaration of Estella-Lizarra".

Arnaldo Otegi moved 135 Basque prisoners to prisons closer to the Basque Country.

Meanwhile, in the Basque parliamentary election in 1998, Arnaldo Otegi stood and won as a candidate for Euskal Herritarrok, in the constituency of Gipuzkoa.

Shortly afterwards, a Spanish Supreme Court ruling confirmed the 15-month prison sentence against Arnaldo Otegi for "glorifying terrorism" in a case brought against him for a speech he had given in 2003 in commemoration of the murder by Spanish state-funded mercenaries of prominent ETA member "Argala" 25 years previously.

Arnaldo Otegi appealed the sentence, but a panel of judges unanimously rejected the appeal.

In November 2005, Arnaldo Otegi was sentenced to a year in prison, on charges of slander against King Juan Carlos during a 2003 news conference.

Arnaldo Otegi had then stated that the King was the "chief of the Spanish army, that's to say, the person responsible for the torturers, who favour torture and impose his monarchic regime on our people through torture and violence".

Arnaldo Otegi started serving the sentence on 8 June 2007 and was released from prison in August 2008.

Meanwhile, starting in October 2007, Arnaldo Otegi was prosecuted along with Pernando Barrena and other former members of Batasuna, PSE political leaders Patxi Lopez and Adolfo Ares, as well as the then incumbent Basque Autonomous Community president Juan Jose Ibarretxe, for holding talks to find a compromise leading to peace, as opposed to the approach adopted by the judge of the Justice High Court of the Basque Country, who considered the meetings illegal.

Arnaldo Otegi was barred from holding public office for sixteen years.

In September 2010, Arnaldo Otegi again faced trial for glorifying terrorism, this time at a November 2004 rally held in the Anoeta Velodrome in San Sebastian.

Arnaldo Otegi was found not guilty by the Spanish National Court, which ruled that Otegi did not praise ETA, but was defending "peaceful coexistence and the need for a process of dialogue and negotiation in order to resolve the conflict in a non-violent and democratic way".

In September 2011, Arnaldo Otegi was found guilty of the initial charge, trying to rebuild Batasuna, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

Arnaldo Otegi was elected Secretary General of abertzale Basque separatist party Sortu in February 2013.

On 24 March 2015, a campaign for Arnaldo Otegi's release was launched in the European Parliament by Basque musician Fermin Muguruza who read out the "International Declaration to Free Otegi and to bring Basque Political Prisoners home".

Arnaldo Otegi was released from prison on 1 March 2016, after six years in prison.

Arnaldo Otegi ultimately put down the alleged espionage to the deep state inherited from Francoism and its impunity.