3
CASTELLS v. SPAIN JUDGMENT
Mr J.M. MONTERO, abogado,
Mr E. VILLA, abogado,
Counsel,
Mr J. VERVAELE, Professor,
Mr D. KORFF, assistants.
The Court heard addresses by Mr Borrego Borrego for the Government,
by Mr Loucaides for the Commission and, for the applicant, by Mr Castells
himself, by Mr Montero, by Mr Villa and by Mr Vervaele, as well as their
replies to its questions and to the question of a judge.
AS TO THE FACTS
6. Mr Miguel Castells, a Spanish national, resides at San Sebastián
(Guipúzcoa), where he is a lawyer. At the material time he was a senator
elected on the list of Herri Batasuna, a political grouping supporting
independence for the Basque Country.
A. The particular circumstances of the case
1. The disputed article
7. In the week of 4 to 11 June 1979, the weekly magazine "Punto y Hora
de Euskalherria" published an article entitled Insultante Impunidad
(Outrageous Impunity) and signed by the applicant. The article read as
follows:
"In a few days, at the San Fermín holiday, a year will have gone by since the
murders of Germán Rodríguez atPamplona (Iruna) and of Joseba Barandiarán at San
Sebastián(Donosti). The authorities have not identified the perpetrators of these
crimes. They have not even acknowledged to which organisations they belong. Nor
have they identified the persons who killed, between 12 and15 May 1977, Gregorio
Marichalar Ayestarán, aged 63, and Rafael Gómez Jaúregui, aged 78, at Rentería, José
Luis Canoat Irun and Manuel Fuentes Mesa at Ortuella; on 14 May,again in 1977,
José Luis Aristizábal at San Sebastián, and,at around the same date, in the same town,
IsidroSusperregui Aldekoa, over 70 years old; at the beginning ofJune, still in 1977,
Javier Núñez Fernández at Bilbao;Francisco Aznar Clemente, Pedro María Martínez
Ocio,Romualdo Barroso Chaparro, Juan José Castillo and Bienvenido Pereda Moral,
on 3 March 1976 at Gasteiz, and,in the same year, on 7 March at Basauri, Vicente
AntónFerrero, on 9 May at Montejurra, Aniano Jiménez and RicardoPellejero, in June
Alberto Romero Soliño at Eibar, in September Jesús María Zabala at Fuenterrabía, in
November Santiago Navas and José Javier Nuin at Santesteban and on10 July Normi
Menchaka at Santurce; José Emilio Fernández Pérez, 16 years old, and Felipe Carro
Flores, 15 years old, on 24 July and 25 July 1978, one at Apatomonasterio and the
other at Sestao. I only mention the dead ones and the list is far from being exhaustive.
These are only examples. Not one, I repeat, not one of the murders, of the
interminable list of fascist murders carried out in the Basque Country (Euzkadi), has
shown the slightest sign of being cleared up by the authorities. Will the individuals