Basque socialist separatist party Sortu yesterday condemned the imprisonment in Spain of four youth cadres, despite allegations of police torture during their trial.

The four were arrested on Tuesday when they were due to begin a six-year prison sentence for belonging to the banned Segi separatist party.

Three more members who had been sentenced in the same trial escaped arrest.

Most of the seven were arrested in 2010 and were convicted in a mass trial of 28 alleged Segi members in Spain’s National Court.

This followed the arrest and trial of 40 others in 2009. All 40 were acquitted after allegations of torture discredited police statements.

In the most recent trial, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against 12 of the accused and the other 16 were still awaiting news of their judgement when the police swooped without warning.

All of the seven condemned had also made allegations of torture at the hands of police, but these were dismissed despite medical examinations confirming them.

Sortu also blasted the timing of the arrests, pointing out that an election campaign was due to begin at midnight today.

Segi was banned in 2002 by judge Baltasar Garzon, on the grounds that it was linked to Basque terrorist group Eta.

Basque separatist parties are routinely outlawed in Spain on a variety of pretexts, including failure to condemn Eta attacks.

While Spain is federal, its constitution forbids its “autonomous communities” from moving toward independence.