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Witch
hunt denounced by anti-war opposition in Spain
MADRID
(PL) — The Spanish government has asked for three-
to five-year prison terms for two of its citizens
responsible for an anti-war web page, a maneuver
that representatives of that country’s left has
denounced as "a witch hunt."
The
ruling Popular Party asked for that sentence for two
members of the United Left (IU) in a case brought
for alleged crimes of injury to and libel of
government members, described as accomplices to
murder on the website noalaguerra.org, on account of
their backing for the war on Iraq.
At the
same time, a trial court in the capital has been
asked to order the Spanish security forces to
investigate this website and others on the Internet
under the code name "nodo50," defined as
an autonomous counterintelligence operation against
social movements.
These
petitions were made public at the end of a two-hour
hearing in which charges were brought against
eminent political science professors Juan Carlos
Monereo and Miguel Martín, both IU members employed
at the Complutense University of Madrid.
In a
statement to the press, Monereo qualified the
charges and the case as a witch hunt and an attempt
to silence the emergence of critical voices at the
University in opposition to the war and the
government’s policy.
He
affirmed that the legal proceedings are designed to
criminalize the IU and the entire opposition, and
that such actions are part of an attempt by the
government to silence all critical voices.
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