Prosecutors are seeking a total of 375 years in prison for the accused, aged between 21 and 31 years old, on charges of "inflicting injuries of a terrorist-nature" and issuing "terrorist threats," alleging an atmosphere of constant "harassment and pressure" against police forces in the area.

But the defence argues this was a mere bar brawl in October 2016 in Alsasua, a town in Navarra, the northern region in Spain that neighbours the Basque Country and which Basque separatists -- including armed group ETA -- have long laid claim to.

The trial comes as critics raise the alarm over what they say is the disproportionate use of counter-terrorism laws in Spain, just days after a woman was arrested for "terrorism" in a probe on pro-independence activists in Catalonia who staged protests, including road blockades.

READ ALSO: Court probes Catalan independence activists for 'terrorism'

A judge subsequently released her and dropped the charge, opting for the lesser offence of "public disorder."

The two policemen allegedly beaten up in 2016 were off duty and had gone to the bar with their girlfriends, when they were reportedly set upon by locals in a fight that saw one of the officers go to hospital with a broken ankle.

In its ruling sending the case to trial, a judge from Spain's National Court, which deals with terror cases, said that at least two of the accused were part of a movement seeking to drive police out of town.

These types of movements were actively promoted by ETA when it targeted Spanish security forces, which it wanted out of what it considered its "country."

Ruben Mugica, lawyer for the Covite association of ETA victims that brought the case to court, said the severe charges were justified by "the context in which the attack happened."

He told Spanish radio that the atmosphere "of permanent harassment" during the decades of ETA's violent separatist campaign was still alive in some places today.

READ MORE: Spain's counter-terror law crushes satire: Amnesty International

The defendants, though, deny any form of concerted action, and some say they did not even assault the policemen.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, said that "while injuring people of course warrants criminal investigation, charges of terrorism are entirely inappropriate and must be dropped."

"This case is emblematic of the dangers that lurk within overly-broad and vaguely worded legislation, which can be used to criminalise behaviour that is far removed from any threat of terrorism."</s>The trial has got under way of eight people charged with terrorism-related offences for their alleged role in an altercation which led to two Spanish civil guards being hospitalised.

While some see the case as a bar brawl which has been blown out of proportion, others claim it is a sinister throwback to the days of Basque separatist violence.

The incident took place in October 2016, during local festivities in the town of Alsasua, in the Basque-speaking area of the northern Navarre region. But that is about all the two sides in the trial can agree upon.

The two civil guards involved allege that on entering a bar with their girlfriends they were recognised by local youths, who insulted them and told them to leave. According to the prosecution, the youths then attacked the two men, one of who suffered a broken ankle and the other various injuries. One of the women with them was also injured.

The prosecution says the episode was part of an orchestrated campaign of intimidation against Spanish security forces and have linked it to the kind of scare tactics traditionally used by supporters of terrorist group Eta. Nationalists regard Navarre as part of the Basque homeland, and the region witnessed much of Eta’s separatist violence during its four decades of terrorism, which ended with a permanent ceasefire in 2011.

Seven of the defendants could face prison sentences of 50 years or more for terrorist assault and threats, and the eighth could face a 12½-year sentence for terrorist threats.

But the defendants, aged between 21 and 31, insist they have had no involvement in any strategy to intimidate security forces.

“It’s been made clear that our children are not terrorists,” Isabel Pozueta, the mother of one of the defendants, said on Monday after the first session of the trial, which is taking place in the high court in Madrid.

“They were just some normal kids, like those of any mum or dad, who went out for a good time and what happened was a bar brawl.”

Ms Pozueta’s son, Adur Ramírez, is one of three defendants who have been in custody for 18 months leading up to the trial.

On Monday, all eight defendants denied being directly involved in the altercation at all.

The families have warned that the trial has been influenced by terrorism victims’ groups who, they say, want punitive sentences as a form of revenge on Basque nationalists. Amnesty International has also expressed concerns about the lengthy prison terms the defendants could face.

On Tuesday, the two civil guards testified, alleging that a total of 20 or 25 people attacked them in an assault which began inside the bar and continued on the street.

One of the guards, who had only recently been posted to Alsasua when the incident took place, described it as a town still in thrall to pro-independence extremism.

“I’m used to violent situations and stress because of the job and I’d never been through anything like this,” he said of the alleged assault. “We were outnumbered, [we had] that feeling of being hated because we were civil guards and I’d never felt that before.”</s>MADRID (AP) — The trial of seven men and one woman accused of beating up two police officers and their girlfriends two years ago in northern Spain opened Monday amid controversy because of the terrorism charges brought against the defendants.

The fight at a bar in the small town of Alsasua in the early hours of Oct. 15, 2016, left one off-duty officer with a broken ankle and caused psychological trauma to all the victims, according to Civil Guard unions.

Prosecutors say the brawl should be punished under the country's terrorism laws, as crimes of terrorist intent. They claim the attackers were members of Basque activism groups and that targeted the off-duty officers as part of their campaign to oust Spanish security forces from Basque areas. The goal is also shared by the militant separatist group ETA.

Areas with a strong Basque identity are grappling to overcome decades of violence at the hands of ETA, which killed more than 800 people including police, politicians and entrepreneurs before giving up its armed campaign for Basque independence in 2011.

Supporters say the charges are disproportionate for what they consider that was a simple bar brawl. They also complain that three of the defendants have been kept in pre-trial custody for nearly 18 months. They also consider the prosecutors' request for prison sentences ranging between 12 and 62 years as unreasonable.

"It would be a real judicial aberration to uphold the charges," defense lawyer Manuel Olle said Monday. "That would be trivializing terrorism in the criminal code."

Hearings have been scheduled for the next two weeks in the highly anticipated trial that opened Monday at the National Court in Madrid. A verdict could be months away.

Backed by regional and local authorities, tens of thousands of people protested over the weekend in the northern city of Pamplona, the capital of the province where Alsasua is located. The protesters marched behind a banner with the slogan "Justice. It's not terrorism."

Relatives of the defendants at the march said they were not backing impunity but urged that justice be applied "without exaggeration, distortion and disproportion."

The Collective for the Victims of Terrorism, or COVITE, which is part of the prosecution in the trial, said Saturday's march and local officials' support for it was a further attack on the victims and "a clear abandonment" of them.

COVITE's lawyer, Miguel Mugica, told Cadena SER the attack on the officers should be seen as part of a "totalitarian climate that remains in the streets of the Basque Country and Navarra and that seeks to silence dissidents."

Amnesty International has said the violent aggression should be tried in a lower regional court in Navarra, and not at the National Court, which typically handles terrorism cases.

Inactive since 2011, ETA gave up on its remaining arsenal last year. Both France and Spain, where the group committed most of its deadly actions over more than 40 years, have demanded it take a further step and disband.</s>MADRID — A trial has opened over the beating of two police officers and their girlfriends in northern Spain two years ago, a case surrounded by controversy because of the terrorism charges brought against the eight defendants.

Prosecutors say the fight at a bar in Alsasua in October 2016 should be treated as terror injuries and threats and judged as part of the long-standing Basque separatist campaign to oust Spanish security forces.

Supporters and defence lawyers say the charges are disproportionate for what they see as a bar brawl.

They also complain that three of the defendants have been kept in pretrial custody for nearly 18 months and reject the prosecutors’ request for prison sentences ranging between 12 and 62 years.

Tens of thousands of people protested over the weekend in the northern city of Pamplona behind a banner with the slogan “Justice. It’s not terrorism.”
Eight people go on trial in Navarra, Spain, accused of terrorism after an alleged attack on two Civil Guards in a controversial case with the prosecution seeking a total 375 years imprisonment for the defendants. The defence claims the incident was nothing more than a bar brawl and Amnesty International describes the charges as "inappropriate".