JINHA

NEWS CENTER – After the people in the Basque city of Gasteiz formed a human wall to protect seven young Basque activists from arrest, police violently broke up the group in order to arrest Aiala Zaldibar and two other activists today.

With Spanish police attempting to arrest seven young Basque activists facing jail sentences of six years each for their work, 8,000 people in the Basque capital of Gasteiz took to the streets starting yesterday to protect the group. The crowd, dressed in brightly colored clothes, formed a human wall around the three activists who had so far evaded arrest, including young teacher Aiala Zaldibar,who was born in the nearby village of Aranbizkarra.

The people of Gasteiz, camping out to protect the activists,resisted an initial police attack last night. Police managed to break up the human wall today only by brutally arresting and beating members of the crowd to reach Aiala and the two other activists, Ibon Esteban and Igarki Robles.

Aiala had previously managed to escape arrest by going into hiding for four month, according to information on social media. She was eventually captured by French police and held for 16 months. Now she is facing six years of jail time for her activism. Many of the activists who have been arrested have previously been tortured in detention.

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