Bilbao, Spain - A court in Spain's Basque region on Monday dropped charges against regional Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe, who had gone on an unprecedented trial for meeting with the illegal separatist party Batasuna in 2006. Batasuna is regarded as the political wing of the militant Basque separatist group ETA.
The court also dropped charges against two Basque Socialist leaders and five Batasuna members.
Two associations lending support to victims of terrorism had argued that the meetings were illegal, because Batasuna had been outlawed in 2003 for links with ETA.
Defence lawyers argued that Ibarretxe and the Socialists had only done their duty by meeting with Batasuna during ETA's ceasefire in an attempt to facilitate eventual peace talks between ETA and the Spanish government.
