High Court anti-terrorist judge Baltasar Garzón (archive photo) has suspended the activities of the Basque nationalist ANV and the Basque communist EHAK-PCTV parties for three years, which means that they will not be able to take part in the 9th March general election.

The suspension includes the closure of the parties' headquarters, offices and social centres and the freezing of their bank accounts and other assets.

The ban does not affect ANV or EHAK-PCTV councillors or regional MPs elected at the municipal and regional elections last March.

Judge Garzón justified his ruling on the grounds that the ban intends "to prevent the continued use of these political parties for the commission of serious crimes."

Earlier this week, three leaders from each party were charged with collaborating with ETA.

Government to proceed with ANV and EHAK-PCTV bans
By: thinkSPAIN
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Justice minister, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, will propose at this Friday's cabinet meeting that permission be given for the legal process to begin that will result in the banning of the ANV and EHAK-PCTV nationalist parties based on new evidence that they are intrinsically linked to the already-banned Batasuna party, that is ETA's main political organ.

Meanwhile, state prosecutors have requested that High Court judge, Baltasar Garzón, impose a ban an ANV pre-election rally planned in Vitoria this weekend. The request follows an incident at a rally in Pamplona on the 12th January at which the ANV mayoress of Hernani, Marian Beitialarrangoitia (second photo), called for a round of applause for the recently-arrested ETA suspect pair, Ibon Portu and Martín Sarasola, who are accused of carrying out the Barajas airport attack at the end of 2006 that left two dead and brought an end to ETA's eight-month ceasefire. 

ANV mayoress cited for extolling terrorism
By: thinkSPAIN
Monday, January 14, 2008

High Court prosecutors denounced the mayoress of Hernani (Guipúzoca), Marian Beitialarrangoitia (ANV), yesterday for extolling terrorism by paying homage to the two recently-detained ETA suspects accused of the fatal Barajas airport bombing at a political rally in Pamplona last Saturday.

At the rally, as well as calling for a round of applause for Igor Portu and Martín Sarasola, Ms Beitialarrangoitia also criticised Spanish state security forces and described Interior minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, as "the minister of lies."

In an interview on Cadena Ser radio this morning, government first vice-president, María Fernández de la Vega, said that, as a result of the ANV mayoress's words, the party "has moved a step closer to being declared illegal."

At the end of last week, the Guardia Civil handed state prosecutors the results of their investigation into alleged links between the ANV and the PCTV Basque communist party with the banned Batasuna party.

It seems increasingly likely that both parties will be declared illegal in time to prevent them from standing at the 9th March general elections.