24 world leaders yesterday presented at the European Parliament a declaration in which they demand the release from prison of Basque pro-independence Sortu party leader Arnaldo Otegi, and the return of prisoners to the Basque Country. Yesterday's event was held was five years after an international team of mediators and political leaders coordinated by South African lawyer Brian Currin had praised the commitment of the Basque left pro-independence movement for peace, had requested a ceasefire from ETA armed group, and had asked the Spanish government a different approach to the Basque conflict dossier.

Yesterday's declaration was read by Basque singer Fermin Muguruza. It has been endorsed by former presidents, political and religious leaders, philosophers, journalists and human rights activists worldwide (full list below, or click left image to enlarge).

The text argues Otegi has been instrumental for the Basque pro-independence movement to call off violence. "Unfortunately the Spanish government responded to Otegi's efforts by arresting him in October 2009. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for membership of the political party, Batasuna, which had been banned by the Spanish government," the declaration reads, before pointing out that ever since, and "despite the end of ETA's armed activity", "there is still an absence of any positive response from the Spanish State."

Endorsers criticize the fact that Otegi and "some 500 other Basque prisoners related to this conflict" are imprisoned away from the Basque Country, "a reality that brings and added punishment to their families."

For all these reasons, the declaration calls for "the immediate release of Arnaldo Otegi, a man who took risks for peace and democracy and who tirelessly persuaded many others to believe in the power of word alone as the mean of resolving this conflict." "His release and the end of the dispersal policy," the text ends, "are necessary steps to achieve a just and lasting peace."

Full list of endorsers

José Pepe Mújica, former Uruguayan president; Fernando Lugo, former Paraguayan president; José Manuel Zelaya, former Honduran president; Lucía Topolansky, Uruguayan senator; Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner; Mairead Maguire, Northern Irish peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner; Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentinian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner; Ahmed Kathrada, South African anti-apartheid leader; Angela Davis, former Communist Party of the USA leader; Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, former Mexico DF head of government; Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin leader and Irish MP; Leyla Zana, Kurdish MP; Leila Khaled, Palestinian National Council member; Ken Livingstone, former London mayor; Nora Morales de Cortiñas, Madres de la Plaza de Mayo co-founder; Harold Good, Irish reverend and witness in the decomissioning of arms in Northern Ireland's peace process; Helmuth Markov, former German MEP; Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian philosopher; Tariq Ali, Pakistani writer; Pierre Galand, president of the World Organisation Against Torture OMCT-Europe; Gershon Baskin, founder of Israeli peace organization ICPRI; Joao Pedro Stédile, national coordinator of Brazil's Movimento Sem Terra (MST); Carmen Lira, editor of La Jornada Mexican newspaper, and Fermin Muguruza himself.