Canadian Government Collaborates with Spanish Torture

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Thursday October 09, 2008 17:08

by Mac Gall - Irish Basque Committee (Dublin)

basquedublin at gmail dot com

Iban Apaolaza Sancho refused habeas corpus by Canadian Superior Court and due for deportation to Spain; Iban on hunger strike in protest. Dublin Committee calls for support for protest action on 17th

This month, a Canadian court refused to hear a habeas corpus writ to challenge the continuing detention of Basque refugee Iban Apalaoza Sancho and the state's plans to deport him to Spanish jurisdiction. The court ruled that the country's Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to residents in Canada who are not citizens. Iban is now on hunger strike in protest and the 17th has been set by the Canadian authorities for his deportation. The Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Committees called for support for protests it plans for the same day.

On 30 September Judge Louise Lemelin of the Superior Court of Quebec ruled that she would not hear a motion of habeas corpus on Iban Apaolaza Sancho. The judge ruled that laws on rights to challenge legality of detention are not applicable to non-Canadian citizens.
Iban entered Canada some years back under an assumed name, fleeing Spanish state injustice and worked in his adopted country as a carpenter, infringing no laws. When the Spanish state learned of his whereabouts, they informed the Canadian immigration authorities, who arested and detained Iban last June.
The Spanish did not seek Iban's extradition, for which they would have had to produce evidence but state accused Iban of belonging to ETA, a charge which Iban denies, and sought his deportation. Iban and his legal team challenged the evidence of the Spanish state which was entirely based on a statement by another detainee of the Guardia Civil while held incommunicado, who retracted the statement as soon as she got into court and stated that it had been obtained by torture. It was that statement too that led to the placing of Iban's name on the EU list of suspected terrorists.
Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board Commissioner Dubé recognized that the confession used by Spanish authorities to issue arrest warrants against Mr. Apaolaza Sancho was probably obtained by torture and also that the EU terrorist list was not reliable.
However, the Canadian court that decided to deport Iban assumed that the documentation supplied by the Spanish state was legal and was unwilling to hear any challenge. Iban's defence team then challenged the detention as illegal and issued the habeas corpus writ (essentially, a demand that the state release their captive on the grounds that he is being held illegally), the basis of which was that the prisoner was being held on the 'evidence' of a statement obtained by torture, which contravenes Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Judge Lemelin ruled that non-citizens have no right to such protection and refused to hear the challenge to Spanish state evidence. Iban has also been denied the right to seek political asylum.

"This refusal to hear our arguments denies Ivan the only judicial recourse available to him to challenge the fact that he is being deported solely on the basis of evidence obtained through the use of torture," said Mr. William Sloan, Mr. Apaolaza Sancho's lawyer.
"Once again, Canada's courts are legitimizing evidence obtained by torture. I can only hope that Canadians of good conscience continue to speak out against this continued injustice, in my case, and in the case of others," said Mr. Apaolaza Sancho after hearing the decision.
Iban's support committee in Quebec staged street drama acts to highlight Iban's case on his court date, including one of the supporters chaining himself to the building; another being 'suffocated' by a plastic bag over his head while tied to a chair (a common 'interrogation' method of Spain's Guarda Civil) and supporters handing out plastic bag packs to legal personnel and other visitors to the court with instructions on how to use the plastic bags inside.
His legal team is taking the case now to the Federal Court of Canada. The Dublin Irish Basque Committee had been asked by a relative in the Basque country in June to assist and had entered into correspondence with Iban, with his lawyer and his Quebec support committee (Liberté Pour Iban) and with the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland. A spokesperson for the DIBC stated: "We are saddened by this decision but encouraged by Iban's courage and by the actions of some decent people in Quebec and will continue to support Iban in whatever way we can."
Meanwhile, the Canadian Immigration Department issued its judgement that Iban would not be in any danger of torture by Spanish Police -- in spite of the fact that the same Department agreed that the original statement against Iban had probably been obtained by torture!
Iban is now on hunger strike in protest. In response, the prison authorities have removed his spectacles and transferred him to a cramped cell where his support committee reports that the walls are stained with faeces and blood.

Background: www.peoplescommission.org/ivan.php

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Canadian Government Collaborates with Spanish Torture