The defendants testified on Thursday, and their statements could be summarized as follows: The citizens who gathered in the square of legumes or in the camping area decided collectively what to do, in general, to go to the field of the works and put them passively in front of the machines.

Garbiñe Elizegi begins to testify and answers the prosecutor’s and her lawyer’s questions in isolation. He has not responded to the particular accusation. The remaining six defendants have also responded only to their lawyers. Everyone said they had a translator by their side.

In the prosecutor’s indictment, the defendants “form an organized and structured group that, through the use of violence and violent actions, sought to hinder the progress of the works, in which they had different roles and functions.” According to him, Garbiñe Elizegi moved from the municipality to channel the social protest, “and was the leader of the organized violent actions; he gave orders, organized shifts and distributed functions; he actively participated in actions to obstruct the works and was an interlocutor in the propaganda videos that were published on the internet about the mobilizations.”

In this division of roles of the prosecutor, Elizegi was the leader, and his deputies, Lagunane Ariztegi and Itziar Torres, were the authors of the actions. However, based on what we have seen and heard at the trial, the allegations will be difficult enough to prove that these leadership issues and, in particular, the defendants are linked to violence.

An alternative project

Palacio de Arosteguia SL wanted to build a hotel, a golf course and a residential development of 252 houses in Lekaroz, and Elizegi explains that after arriving at the Baztan Town Hall (Reunidos, 2011-2015) they presented an alternative to the promoters of the project: the hotel, the golf course and some apartments that were approved by the town hall, but not the residential development. “The company refused to do so, so it was clear that the company only wanted land reclassification and speculation.”

At that time it was not accepted and almost a decade later the works began, in April 2021. In response to the prosecutor’s office, has Elizegi explained the carpentry and then what? the association was founded in 2010; and as the prosecutor suggests, since then the leader has been Elizegi. This, however, has made it very clear in the trial – as Joseba Otondo did yesterday – that the association does not work in this way, that he was the first president, but that both this and the other positions are only needs to be fulfilled in order to legally operate the association, which is in fact an “open and horizontal” way of operating the association. He also points out that after being mayor, he spent several years abroad, two years in the United States, South Dakota and California, and that the association was still working in the same way.

“The witch hunt”

Lawyer Josu Beaumont to Elizegi: Have you committed civil disobedience? What is civil disobedience to you? “I did it, yes. Civil disobedience is the act of opposing unjust laws without resorting to violence. No one in the assemblies proposed any violent action.” These days, during the trial, it has been clear how the accusations have insisted on showing him as a leader and associating him with violent actions and he has also wanted to respond to this: “It’s a lie that has been built here and it looks a lot like a witch hunt. I want to say that we are not afraid to say that what we have done is not a matter of one person, but of the whole people.”

What did he do, Elizabeth? In response to the lawyer’s questions, he says that when the group of citizens entered the works, Lekarozti went down the path of the hermitage, including himself, where there were no signs, “we heard in the village that the works had begun and we went to see what happened, the machine stopped and we saw that this could be a form of our struggle (...) We were willing to put our bodies in danger in front of the machines, thus emphasizing the seriousness of the situation.

As for the camping, they thought that with more time in the work area, the machines would also be more stationary. “In addition,” says Elizegi, “our main objective was to pressure the Government of Navarre to stop the UGEP (Plan with Impact on Municipalities).” However, she explains that she was not constantly in the camping, that she is a nurse and that she had night care several times.”

“Silence, do not speak”

These words of Elizegi have been transformed by the accusations into a command stick in this matter. Today he explains the meaning he gave to them: “To avoid problems, it was agreed in the assembly that we would not talk to the police and then, if someone spoke, we would remind them what we decided in the assembly. We knew that fines could come later, so the decision was to put ourselves in front of the machines passively, and that’s why we created a resistance box from there to pay the fines. As for the IDs, it was decided that each person would see what to do.”

Elizegi also conducted interviews, “but also others, what happens is that I have known the project for a long time, and as a result I go to several interviews.”

In response to the prosecutor's questioning, he makes it clear that he has not heard or seen any violence, threats and/or insults. “So there were two groups, one violent and the other peaceful?” the prosecutor insists for the umpteenth time: “I know what I saw, in any case we have heard even these days that the civil guards and the foresters said that they only saw peaceful actions, and these are not our allies in particular.” “Yes, you say peaceful, but then a ridiculous video was made about TEX” [about the missing Dumper], the prosecutor tells him as if satire was a crime. “The police came to ask us about the dumper,” says Elizegi, “and we told them we didn’t know anything. Everyone was making jokes about this machine and there was a general tone all over Baztan.”

From the fronton of legar to the works

The remaining five defendants subsequently testified and expressed similar patterns of conduct. They've only answered questions from their lawyers. In general, each one has explained his own experience, but there were great similarities according to them. As the beginning of the works of the Carpinteria spread in the valley, they received Whatsapp messages indicating that there was an assembly in Lekaroz, they approached it separately, participating in the local assembly, where it was decided to go to the works to see what the situation was. As they approached, the machines stopped and improvised according to the current situation: “In our group, for example,” says Lagunane Elizegi, “one of us took out a banner and decided to make a video, which would perhaps help that I am a journalist.”

Everyone insists that, for them, the project was illegal and they wanted to stop it. Every day they were working on their own work, and they appeared in the field of work as many as they could, once, twice, or three or four times in all that time. During the trial, too, the terrible organization of the possible organized criminal group, such as the information services, has been constantly dancing: “All roads were controlled, when the police showed up from one place the activists were on the other, they were camouflaged among the bushes with the largabistas...” Well, in the statements of the defendants, in their case it was much simpler: “Lekaroz is a small village, it’s in the countryside, and if you start working here with a big machine, or a chainsaw, you’ll notice right away. That’s how we realized that the works were beginning, because of the noise of the machines.”

Who is the attacker?

Ariztegi and Itziar Torres Garbñe have been presented as Elizegi’s right hand in this trial, and both firmly claim that this has neither leg nor head, that they have never received orders from him. “I’m alive and I get along well, so I’m ready to talk,” explains Torres. And similar to Ariztegi: “I speak because I’m from the village, because I have the facility to do it and it’s my field.”

Throughout the trial, José Mari Martín, a labourer and employee of the Palacio de Arozteguia, was present. The accusations were made against him and he was constantly insulted. Well, Itziar Torres, who has been accused of taking part in one of them, brings a 2017 episode to remind him that he has never attacked Martin, but he has. “I was doing some art videos in Lekaroz and I went to the works with three friends. It was known that José Mari used to intimidate people there. We were there filming the video, it came to scare me and after an exchange of words I made a “peineta” – long finger up, the others together. She grabbed me, and violently put me up against the wall, making me a “fucking debt” and insults for being a woman, telling me that I thought I was pretty but it wasn’t true and things like that. Since then, however, I have not had any problems with him. I am shocked to hear that I am now the aggressor when I suffered the attack.” Torres has been clear about threats and insults: “I’m not a threat supporter, I think we’re more effective in broad daylight and doing things publicly.”

They point out that they were prosecuted in the field of work or in the camp, several times, one time or another, always in a peaceful manner, without offending or threatening anyone... They were unlucky, however, because they are said to have been identified three times in the area – either by the police, or in videos, or told by witnesses – and so they have been seated on the defendants’ bench. There may have been others, but they've been touched. It’s no joke, as the civil guard, who has made the main report on the matter, acknowledged on Monday.

On Friday each side will explain its final conclusions, the defendants will have a final round to talk if they want to, and the trial will wait for the verdict.