arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

"I asked the coroner to let me out, or else I would smash my head against a column"
Martxelo Otamendi, chief editor of Egunkaria newspaper, was released on bail last Monday, after having been arrested and isolated for five days in the Spanish Civil Guard headquarters. As soon as he walked out of Soto del Real prison outside Madrid, he revealed he had been tortured. Thousands of TV viewers were shocked and moved as they saw Otamendi's testimony live.
This interview with Otamendi was released on Thursday February 27, in Egunero, Egunkaria's substitute paper.
What did they do to you during those days in isolation?
I was forced to do physical exercises until I was breathless and exhausted. I was insulted and threatened all the time. They even put a plastic bag on my head twice to try and suffocate me. They told me that interrogations were like a train: I had the chance to get off the train at the first stop in order to suffer less; they told me that in the end everyone speaks. I was not beaten up constantly, as Joan Mari Torrealdai (the CEO of Egunkaria) was. It was all gradual: first, I was forced to stand up for hours, then I had to bend down...Once I was kept like that for three hours.
Was that during the interrogations?
No, that was in the cell. In the cell beside me, there was another detainee, but in comparison with me, he was well treated. They were playing with us, in order to force us to loathe our friends.
While you were incommunicado, were you alone in the cell?
No, there were two of us in the cell, but we were not allowed to look at each other, nor to speak. In those five days, I didn't say a word to my cellmate, we were so terrified!
Were the Civil Guards with you?
No, they were outside, but they had a kind of spy-hole in the cell-door to keep an eye onus. You are so afraid of their possible reprisals that you don't even dare to look at your friend...
Did they put a bag over your head?
The interrogation is gradual, and they tell you that it is going to get worse every day. On Saturday, another group of Civil Guards came and put a bag over my head. They did it twice. I was so naive that I thought I would resist half a minute without breathing... You can't even resist three seconds! And you lose your head and say: "Yes, I will tell you". Later, when you say you can't remember or something like that, they answer: "Try to remember bastard! On the floor! Press ups!"
Were you beaten up?
They kicked me a few times in the testicles, as to remind me of what could come later. They were not very hard.
Were you naked?
Yes, totally naked. They insulted me about my sexual preferences. "Yes, lie down that way, we know you like it"...While I was naked, they inserted a piece of plastic into my arsehole.
Did you tell the coroner about the tortures?
We were taken to the coroner every day. On the second day, I told him that Thursday [the day they were arrested] had been very hard, that I had been forced to do all sorts of physical exercises, that they had threatened me a hundred times, that I had been forced to stand up for the whole night..."If this goes on, I will lose consciousness", I told him. "Tell the judge to take me to the Spanish National Criminal Court [Audiencia Nacional, special Spanish court for terrorism and drug trafficking crimes], or I will bang my head against that iron column...". I was blindfolded again and 30 minutes later, some Civil Guards came to my cell, dragged me out, laid me down and told me: "If you tell the coroner again what we are doing here with you, we will shoot you". They knew it all within half an hour!!
Were there any Civil Guards in the coroner's office?
No, there were not. I mentioned to the judge that the Civil Guards knew about what we had been talking about. I meant to tell him that coroners are useless, because they offer no guarantee for those arrested.
What kind of information did they want from you?
They had two issues regarding me: On the one hand, the role ETA had in the founding of Egunkaria and in my appointment; and on the other hand the interviews with ETA I had made, the statements by ETA we had published, and the Zutabe publication (ETA's bulletin). I explained to them many times that we did not have anything to do with ETA, that I was appointed director by Inaki Uria, that Uria was not an ETA member and that I would have never accepted the appointment if I had known ETA was involved. I told the judge that a thousand times, when he eventually let me talk for 45 minutes. But when I said that to the Guardia Civil members they used to shut me up shouting "son of a bitch, son of a bitch". They told me many times they were going to kill me. When I told them I had the right not to declare, they answered "this place has nothing to do with democracy, nor with the fucking Constitution".
How much information did they have about you?
They reminded me of things I had said in radio talk-shows. They told me that they were there during the Lasa-Zabala trial: "Why did you laugh when you read the sentence?"They told me they had been looking forward to getting hold of me.
All interview : http://www.egunero.info/elkarrizketak/otamendi-eng.html