Spain judge accuses Venezuela government of aiding rebel groups in assassination plot News
Spain judge accuses Venezuela government of aiding rebel groups in assassination plot

[JURIST] A Spanish National Court [official website, in Spanish] judge on Monday accused the Venezuelan government of aiding two rebel groups in a plot to assassinate members of the Colombian government in Spain. Judge Eloy Velasco charged [indictment, PDF, in Spanish] six members of the Basque separatist group ETA [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and seven members of the Colombian rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive] with subverting the constitutional order by collaborating to assassinate Colombian officials, including President Alvaro Uribe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his predecessor Andres Pastrana [BBC profile]. The indictment accuses Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his administration with assisting the collaboration. Velasco found that Arturo Cubillas Fontan, former director of the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture, served as a key link between the groups, introducing members of ETA to FARC personal in Venezuela. A Spanish magistrate has ordered the Colombian and Venezuela governments to surrender the accused individuals [El Pais report] to Spain.

Both ETA and FARC are listed as terrorist organizations in the EU and the US. In January, a Spanish judge found that ETA attempted to assassinate [JURIST report] former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in 2001 with a rocket launcher. In April, alleged ETA leader Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso [El Pais backgrounder, in Spanish] was arrested in France, and a Spanish judge charged [JURIST reports] him with murder for a May 2008 car bombing that killed a Spanish policeman. In 2008, Chavez denounced [JURIST report] a Colombian attack on a FARC outpost based in Ecuador as a "war crime." Colombia retaliated stating that Chavez was providing financing and that Columbia would seek to have Chavez charged [JURIST report] before the International Criminal Court [official website] for supporting the "genocide" of Colombian citizens by leftist militants.

THIS DAY @ LAW

38 Santee Sioux hanged by US for rebellion

On December 26, 1862, 38 Santee Sioux men were hanged in a mass execution for their roles in a rebellion against US authorities in Minnesota which left hundreds dead and made refugees of some 40,000 white settlers. Government annuities promised under a treaty with the Sioux had failed to arrive on schedule and credit for purchases was not advanced in the meantime, threatening the tribe with starvation. The Santee Sioux Tribe's members were deported first to South Dakota and ultimately to Nebraska, where they remain today. Learn more about the 1862 Minnesota Sioux Rebellion.

Louis XVI put on trial during French Revolution

On December 26, 1792, Romain de Sèze, a defense attorney for deposed King Louis XVI, presented a defense of his client. The former King was on trial before a French Revolutionary court on thirty-three charges, including treason and other crimes against the state. He was convicted on January 15, 1793 executed by guillotine on the following January 21.