New trial for the Brittany-Basque Country hospitality case.

Twelve Breton men and women from the Côtes d’Armor and from Central Brittany plus a Basque man from Roazhon/Rennes, accused of having harboured Basque refugees suspected to be ETA militants, appeared free, from Monday June 29 to Wednesday July 1^st, 1998, in the 13^th Room of the Criminal Court of Paris to be tried on the charge of "association of criminals". The ten harboured Basques, arrested and jailed between November 1995 and October 1997, were also tried there on charge of "membership of a terrorist organization".

Sentences to imprisonnement of, 7 years and 10 years for the Basques and from 6 months to 3 years suspended for the Bretons, were demanded on this Tuesday June 30 by the attorney general Irene STOLLER, magistrate specialized in anti-terrorist trials. With an obvious aim to undermine their professional, trade-union or associative life, the demanded sentences were accompagnied by Deprivation of Civil Rights for four Bretons and, what was completely new in this kind of trial, by Banning from PARIS and IPARRALDE (the Northern Basque Country) for all of them.

The accused supported (on their request) by SKOAZELL VREIZH and defended by lawyers Antoine COMTE, Raphaël CONSTANT and Yann CHOUCQ are at risk of getting the following sentences :

The judgement was left on consultation until Wednesday September 2, 1998.

The preceding Brittany-Basque Country Hospitality trial was held in March 1998. The Public Prosecutor having then appealed against the judgement of one of the accused, Julien SETIEN, a final trial should be held in next October. Julien SETIEN, trade-union militant in Naoned/Nantes and Breton by heart from Basque extraction, is supported by SKOAZELL VREIZH and will be defended by Mr Yann CHOUCQ.