The handing over of Meritxell Serret first, and of Anna Gabriel later, before the Supreme Court after years on the run from justice responds to the new strategy proposed by Íñigo Iruinthe historical lawyer of the left a patriot who now represents them. The return to Spain of the two pro-independence leaders has coincided with a change in their defense teams. If the former Minister of Agriculture dispensed with Gonzalo Boye a few months before heading to Spain from Brussels, the former deputy of the CUP appeared before the justice hand in hand with Iruín and without whom until now he had been his head lawyer and companion of match, Benedict Salellas
Legal sources consulted by THE OBJECTIVE state that Iruín is highly respected in the circles of magistrates and that is limited to “a technical defense” away from political postulates. Something that is appreciated in the high court because it is not interpreted as a confrontational strategy or to discredit institutions. The fact that the Judge Pablo Llarenaresponsible for the international arrest warrants, has released Serret and Gabriel represents, in the opinion of these sources, proof of how Iruín’s strategy can be more useful for the interests of its clients.
Iruín also assumed last April the defense of the former president of the Parliament Carmen Forcadell to bring his case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), once the Spanish jurisdictional route has been exhausted after the endorsement of the Constitutional Court to the sentences of the Supreme Court. And ERC sources add that it is part of the “team of lawyers” Martha Rovira, Secretary General of the ERC fled to Switzerland and that, as this newspaper advanced, she is studying her return to Spain in case the Government guarantees her a pardon.
Ex-deputy of the People’s Union
Iruín was born in San Sebastián in 1953. He was a deputy in the Basque Parliament for the late Herri Batasuna from 1983 to 2001 and a senator in the Cortes from 1989 to 1999. His career as a lawyer, add the legal sources consulted, has been characterized by trying seek agreements that benefit their defendants renouncing maximalist positions.
The lawyer was also the author of drafting of Sortu’s statutes, the political party that integrated the members of Batasuna. His formula when expressing rejection of violence was decisive to pass the cut of the Constitutional Court and the Political Parties Lawagreed between PP and PSOE, after a decade of outlawing left-wing brands a patriot. Later, Sortu joined the EH Bildu electoral coalition.
This proximity of Iruín to the surroundings of Esquerra occurs after the strategic alliance of ERC and Bildu in Congress, as the main parliamentary partners, together with the PNV, of the coalition government. Iruín also took charge of the ‘Betaragune case’ against various members of the left a patriot by integration into terrorist organization. The current leader of EH Bildu Arnaldo Otegi resorted to his services in this case. Along the same lines, Iruín has also brought the case against the closure of the ETA propaganda newspaper do it.
Strategy discrepancy with Junts
The strategy proposed by the Basque lawyer for the ERC leaders and the former CUP deputy is diametrically opposed to the one proposed by the politicians of Junts in their European legal battle. Last Wednesday, during the presentation of the demands of the ERC leaders before the ECHR against Spain for their convictions in the case of process for sedition and embezzlement, the lawyers Andreu Van den Eynde and Clara Serra acknowledged that they are in contact with Junts’ lawyers, but that the case of the ERC leaders has its own attributes.