Spain calls Iraqis on camp deaths

14 July 2011 Last updated at 18:11 GMT Relatives of the camp's 3,500 residents are pressing for an investigation A Spanish judge has summoned three Iraqi officers over a raid by Iraqi security forces on a camp housing an Iranian exile group.

The UN says 34 people were killed in the raid at Camp Ashraf, in Diyala province, in April 2011.

Judge Fernando Andreu has summoned Gen Ali Ghaidan Majid, the head of army, and two other officers to appear.

He is investigating allegations that crimes against humanity were committed during the raid on the camp.

The investigation is an enlargement of an existing probe on a separate raid which took place at the camp in July 2009, in which 11 people were killed.

Universal justice

Under Spain's universal justice doctrine, grave crimes committed in other countries can be prosecuted.

Judge Andreu said that the Geneva Convention applied to the case, as it addresses the protection of civilians in wartime and all those killed and injured in the attack were considered "protected persons" under the terms of the Convention.

According to documents released by Madrid's investigative court, a total of 377 "protected persons" were injured in the 8 April 2011 raid, 154 with bullet wounds.

More than 3,000 members of the banned opposition group, the People's Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI), have been confined by the US military at the camp since the invasion in 2003.

The group, considered a terrorist group by the US and Iran, were given permission to shelter in Iraq by former President Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 war between the two countries and they have lived at the camp ever since.

In January, the judge had said he would close the dossier into the July 2009 attack if the Iraqi authorities opened their own investigation.

Iraq responded by saying it had carried out its own legal inquiry but this was not judged sufficient by Spanish authorities.

The three Iraqi officers have been summoned to appear before the Madrid court on 3 October 2011.

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Priceless Spain book 'disappears'

7 July 2011 Last updated at 13:04 GMT The book is only brought out on special occasions, such as the visit of the Pope last year A hugely valuable illuminated manuscript has disappeared from the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, say police.

The Codex Calixtinus dates from the 12th Century and was compiled as a guidebook for medieval pilgrims following the Way of Saint James.

This is the oldest copy of the manuscript and is unsaleable on the open market.

Only a handful of people had access to the room in which it was kept.

This edition of the Codex Calixtinus is thought to date from around 1150.

Its purpose was largely practical - to collect advice of use to pilgrims heading to the shrine there. It also included sermons and homilies to St James.

On Wednesday afternoon, the book was reported missing from the room where it is kept.

"We are investigating its disappearance," a police spokeswoman said, according to AFP news agency.

"It is usually kept in a room to which only half a dozen people have access," she said.

The Codex is only brought out on special occasions, such as last year's visit of Pope Benedict, when it is closely guarded.

If the work has been stolen, it will be impossible to sell it on the open market, says the BBC's arts reporter Vincent Dowd.

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UK holds Spain king plot suspect

7 July 2011 Last updated at 17:24 GMT Mr Arronategui is thought to have fled Spain in 1997 A Spanish man has been arrested in the UK in connection with the attempted assassination of the king of Spain.

Eneko Gogeaskoetxea Arronategui - believed to be a member of the Basque separatist group Eta - was captured by police in Cambridge.

The 44-year-old was later remanded in custody following an extradition hearing held before City of Westminster magistrates.

Spain believes he fled after trying to kill King Juan Carlos in October 1997.

'Addresses searched'

Mr Arronategui was arrested under a European arrest warrant in a raid at about 0900 local time (0800 GMT) on Thursday. British police said searches were conducted at a residential address and two business addresses in Cambridge.

Neighbour Alexander Stewart said: "I see him nearly every morning and he's very polite - he keeps very much to himself most of the time."

Mr Arronategui is suspected of "participation in an armed gang, attempted assassination of the king, terrorism resulting in death, possession of weapons, theft and forgery", according to the warrant.

The Spanish interior ministry said he had been a member of an Eta group which plotted to kill Spain's King Juan Carlos by throwing grenades at him as he attended the opening of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The plot was uncovered a day before the king arrived and no explosives were detonated.

The plot targeted the king at the opening of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba noted that another Eta suspect had been arrested in France on Wednesday, and said the new detention highlighted the weakness of the group.

"It does not matter where they go. There will always be a police officer - it does not matter what nationality," he told reporters.

Eta's violent campaign for independence for the Basque region has cost more than 800 lives since 1968.

The group has also been linked to several other assassination plots on Juan Carlos, who became king in 1975.

A crackdown by the Spanish authorities has led to hundreds of arrests, including most of the group's senior commanders. This is believed to have seriously weakened the group.

Eta has announced ceasefires several times but then gone on to break them by carrying out attacks.

The latest ceasefire was announced in 2010 but was dismissed by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who said it did not go far enough.

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Spain sets huge bail for Egyptian

17 June 2011 Last updated at 23:43 GMT Hussein Salem was charged in Egypt with fraud and financial speculation Spain's National Court has set a record bail figure following the detention of a close associate of the former Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak.

Hussein Salem appeared in court twice on Friday - once in connection with a warrant issued from Egypt, and then on suspicion of money laundering in Spain.

Bail set in the separate hearings reached 27m euros ($39m; ?24m).

Spanish police also froze more than 32.5m euros in cash, properties worth 10m euros and five luxury cars.

The money was obtained illegally in Egypt and sent to bank accounts in Spain held by Mr Salem through a series of companies created by a "frontman", identified as a Turkish man named Ali Evsen, the police alleged.

Spanish citizenship

Mr Salem was charged in Egypt with fraud and financial speculation last month along with Mr Mubarak and the ex-president's two sons, Alaa and Gamal. Their trial is scheduled to start on 3 August.

The 77-year-old is alleged to have won lucrative land and other deals, including exporting gas, because of his connections to the president and his family. The gas deal came under severe public criticism because the resource was sold at preferential prices to Israel, costing Egypt millions of dollars.

Mr Salem is reported to have left Egypt on 3 February, eight days before the president was forced to resign by anti-government protesters.

Mr Mubarak has been held in custody at a hospital in Sharm al-Sheikh since April, but it was not until Thursday night that Mr Salem was detained along with his son, Khaled, and Mr Evsen in a wealthy Madrid suburb.

Egypt's military rulers have vowed to bring to justice all those guilty of abuse

On Friday, Mr Salem appeared before two magistrates at the National Court in the Spanish capital, one handling the Spanish money-laundering investigation and the other dealing with the international arrest warrant.

The judges set bail for Salem at a total of 27m euros - 12m in the Spanish case and 15m in the Egyptian extradition case.

For now, the two proceedings will go ahead simultaneously. At some point, a decision will be made as to which takes precedence.

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Madrid says it is not clear how the charges brought against Mr Salem in Spain will affect Egypt's wish to try him this summer, or the fact that he holds both Spanish and Egyptian passports.

After his court appearance, Mr Salem was reportedly treated in hospital for neurological problems. A court physician told the Associated Press that he was not in good health, but that the problem was not life-threatening.

Bail for Khaled Salem, who also has Spanish citizenship, was set at 6m euros and for Mr Evsen at 18m euros.

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Spain

Located at the crossroads of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Europe and Africa, Spain's history and culture are made up of a rich mix of diverse elements.

Through exploration and conquest, Spain became a world power in the 16th century, and it maintained a vast overseas empire until the early 19th century.

Spain's modern history is marked by the bitterly fought Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, and the ensuing 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

After Franco's death in 1975, Spain made the transition to a democratic state and built a successful economy, with King Juan Carlos as head of state.

The constitution of 1978 enshrines respect for linguistic and cultural diversity within a united Spain. The country is divided into 17 regions which all have their own directly elected authorities. The level of autonomy afforded to each region is far from uniform. For example, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia have special status with their own language and other rights.

Andalucia, Navarre, Valencia and the Canaries in turn have more extensive powers than some other regions. Asturias and Aragon have taken steps to consolidate language rights.

The Giralda, Seville: Remnant of a mosque that once stood on the site

In 2006 a Catalan referendum backed by the central government gave the region greater autonomy.

The Catalans won nation status within Spain and the region's parliament gained extra powers in taxation and judicial matters. The country's regional picture is a complex and evolving one.

One of Spain's most serious domestic issues has been tension in the northern Basque region. A violent campaign by the Basque separatist group ETA has led to nearly 850 deaths over the past four decades.

Eta declared a ceasefire in March 2006 saying it wished to see the start of a democratic process for the Basque region. The move divided opinion in Spain.

Tentative moves to negotiate a lasting peace were dealt a blow when Eta carried out a deadly bomb attack at Madrid's international airport at the end of the year. In June 2007, Eta called off its ceasefire.

The group announced another ceasefire in September 2010, but this time, the government said it was not prepared to enter into negotiations unless Eta renounced violence for good.

Until 2008, the Spanish economy was regarded as one of the most dynamic within the EU. However, the mainstays of the economy were tourism and a booming housing market and construction industry, and so the global economic crisis of 2008-9 hit the country hard.

Spain was tipped into a severe recession and by mid-2010 unemployment had climbed to over 20% - double the EU average.

Spain shares the Iberian peninsula with Portugal and its territory includes the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and two North African enclaves.

From Velazquez in the seventeenth century, through Goya straddling the eighteenth and nineteenth, to Picasso in the twentieth, Spain has the proudest of traditions in art.

Flamenco music and dance are widely admired around the world while Cervantes' novel Don Quixote is one of the most popular ever written.

Cinema is much loved and the films of directors such as Pedro Almodovar attract huge audiences.

Full name: Kingdom of Spain Population: 45 million (UN 2010) Capital: Madrid Area: 505,988 sq km (195,363 sq miles) Major languages: Spanish (Castilian), Catalan and its variant Valencian, Gallego (Galician), Euskera (Basque) Major religion: Christianity Life expectancy: 79 years (men), 85 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 euro = 100 cents Main exports: Transport equipment, agricultural products GNI per capita: US $31,870 (World Bank, 2009) Internet domain: .es International dialling code: +34

Head of state: King Juan Carlos I

Spaniards honour King Juan Carlos for ensuring the country's transition to democracy after the death of the former dictator, General Franco, and for saving Spain from a coup attempt in 1981.

Prime minister: Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has been in office since 2004, led his governing Socialist Workers' Party to another victory in elections in March 2008.

Prime Minister Zapatero made counter-terrorism a priority

The party won by an increased margin, but fell just short of an absolute majority.

The Socialist Workers' Party won a surprise election victory over Jose Maria Aznar's conservative Popular Party in March 2004. Polling was overshadowed by a series of explosions on Madrid commuter trains in which 191 people died just days beforehand.

Mr Zapatero is considered to have won the elections because of voter anger over the conservative government's insistence that armed separatist group Eta was behind the blasts, despite the evidence pointing to Islamist extremists.

Following his election victory, Mr Zapatero described both the war and the occupation of Iraq as a "huge disaster" and pulled Spain's 1,300 troops out of the country.

He showed confidence that the Basque separatist group Eta was serious about the ceasefire it declared in March 2006 when he indicated a few months later that he would start talks with the organisation.

But in early 2007, after an Eta bomb attack at Madrid airport, he apologised to the nation for having pinned hopes on peace talks with the group. Eta withdrew its ceasefire in June.

Neo-classical facade of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house

The prime minister supported the process by which Catalonia won greater autonomy at a referendum in June 2006.

Mr Zapatero was born in 1960. His grandfather, a Republican army officer, was shot dead during the Civil War. He studied law but his career has been largely devoted to politics.

He joined the Socialist Party while still in his teens and first entered parliament at 26. He became party leader in 2000.

He is married and has two daughters.

Broadcasting in Spain has witnessed a significant expansion in recent years with the emergence of new commercial operators and the launch of digital services.

The cable and satellite markets have grown and Spain completed the switchover to digital terrestrial TV (DTT) broadcasting in 2010.

Home-produced dramas, reality shows and long-running "telenovelas" are staple fare on primetime TV.

Public radio and TV are run by RadioTelevision Espanola (RTVE). As well as public and commercial national TV networks, there are 13 regional stations backed by regional governments and many local stations.

Multichannel TV is offered by the satellite platform Digital Plus.

There were 29.1 million internet users by June 2010, and more than 11 million Facebook users by August 2010 (Internetworldstats).

The press

Television

TVE - public, services include national networks La Primera and La 2, satellite-delivered TVE Internacional, rolling news channel 24 Horas Tele Cinco - national, commercial Antena 3 - national, commercial Cuatro - national, commercial, formerly Canal+ Espana

Radio

RNE - public, services include speech network Radio 1, cultural network Radio Clasica, youth-oriented Radio 3, news station Radio 5 Todo Noticias Cadena SER - commercial, operates more than 50 national, regional stations Onda Cero - commercial Cadena COPE - church-controlled Punto Radio - commercial

News agencies

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