FRANCISCO ABARCA CASE
By Fernand Charlier
BRUSSELS -- Since last January public opinion here has been _ aroused over the case of a Spanish anarchist who is threatened with extradition to Switzerland,
_ The oase was first publicized by the Comité d'action contre. le Néo=Colonialisme et le Fascisme [Committee of Action against Neocolon~ ialism and Fasoism], formerly the Comité pour la Paix en Algérie [Committee for Peace in Algeria].
Francisco Abareca belongs to. the Iberian Council of Liberation, Last June and July, this organization launched an operation that included placing incendiary charges in baggage in the terminals of the Spanish air line Iberia. The aim was to discourage tourists from visiting Franco's country.
fo matter how ono vicws the appropriatoness of this tactic, the fact is that it was not designed to cause damage to planes in flight. The fires set in baggage rooms at London, Frankfort and Geneva caused - no loss of lives,
Francisoo Abarca was indicted in . Switzerland for allegedly hav~ ing participated in the action at the Geneva airport.
The Iberian Council of Liberation, however, in a press release sent from Spain last January, claimed full responsibility for the action and said that Abarca was. not involved,
_ The action begun in Switzerland against Abarca comes in the context of a number of steps against Spanish militants in exile, Last fall, for instance, the headquarters of the Federation of Libertarian Youth in Paris were raided, -
The anarchists have been singled out especially. Abarca, who was then in France, went to Belgium to get out of line of fire, There he was arrested at the police station when he went to register, An international warrant for his arrest with a request for extradition had just been received from Switzerland. Thus since last Ootober he has been held at the Forest prison near Brussels,
The immediate goal of the campaign launched last January by the Comité dtAction contre le Néoexcolonialisme et le’ Fascisme is to block extradition,
Formally, Belgian law does not grant extradition for infrastions of a political character. The only exception is in the case of assassination or attempted assassination of a head of state, This exception was established by a law of 1856, passed by parliament to give platonic satisfaction to Napoléon Tir, who had been unable to extradite two persons of French. nationality whom he accused of having made an attempt on his life, It was under this exception that Cabannes de Laprades of the French terrorist OAS [organisation de l'Arm6ée Secrdte] was just extradited for being mixed up in an attempt to assassinate de Gaulle,
In the case of Abaroa, no attempt was made to assassinate a head of state, Consequently he cannot be extradited. Nevertheless, the Council. Chembor, which, according to Belgian law must give an opinion as to whether the charges are of a political character, supporte extraditing Abaroca, holding that a common crime was involved, This is not the first time that Belgian justice has interpreted the law in such a way. The Communards of 1871 were also held to have violated the "common" laws, The grand jury may uphold the Counoilts view,
The current campaign seeks, consequently, to influence the Minister of Justice to disregard this opinion, since he is not legally obliged to abide by it.
It must be clearly understood that the danger is not that Switzerland, in the present situation, would in turn recognize an extradition request from Spain, To claim this would give the "Socialist" Minister Verneylen a pretext to extradite Abaroa to Switzerland in return for a "formal" promise from the latter not to hand him over to Franco, The aim of the campaign thus is to prevent Belgium from delivering him to Switzerland, The goal is to guarantee political asylum not only for Abarea but for all militants in ciroumstances like his,
The campaign has met with a big response, The Union of the Employees of Lidge which belongs to the FGTB [Fédération Générale des Travailleurs de Belgique] gave it a send off, This was followed by support from the whole FGTB of Lidge-Huy~Waremme, They organized amass meeting which included as speakers the Socialist deputy Cools, the left-wing trade-union militant Yerna, and Legreve, the leader of . the Comité d'Action contre le Néo-colonialisme et le Fascisme,
When Abarca begari his hunger strike the regional organizations of the FGTB of the Center, of Brussels and Namur proclaimed thoir solidarity. ,
On the national level, the. FGTB union of the public services was. the first to back Abarca's’ cause, followed by the Congrés du Mouve-~
ment Populaire Wallon [MPW -- Congress of the Walloon People's Movement], the Socialist and Communist students, etc, “Labor stoppages took place Maroh 5 -~- the evening before Abaroa was compelled to end his hunger strike ~- at Cockerill-Ougrée and other plants in the Lidge region, A number of locals of the Socialist party: passed resolutions in his behalf and denounced sommercial relations between Belgium and Spain. The Socialist deputies Glinne and Housiaux took up the case in parliament, etc., etc,
The Communist newspapers, both Le Drapeau Rouge and La Voix ‘au Peuple, the MPW journals Combat and Ta Wallonie, the newspapers o the left wing in the Socialist movement, La la Gauche and Links have featured the campaign, followed in a hesitant way way by the oft Tioial news paper of the Socialist party, Le Peuple.
The response among the workers up to now has already strongly increased the possibility of blocking the ordinary course of class justice, Still to be held is a big rally against the negotiations with Spain and:in favor of the right of political asylum for Francisco Abarca,
U.S.