The Basque Government closes 2023 with 61 third degrees for ETA prisoners, ten of them repeated after being revoked

The autonomous Executive adds 34 more progressions in less time than those approved by the central Government in three and a half years

MADRID, 2 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Basque Government has closed the year 2023 with the approval of a total of 61 progressions to the third degree for ETA prisoners, ten of them repeated after being previously revoked by the justice system, since it assumed responsibility for penitentiary policy in October 2021. .

In just over two years - since October 2021, when it assumed responsibility for penitentiary matters - the regional Executive has added 34 more progressions than those approved by the central Government in three and a half years, before transferring jurisdiction and ending to the dispersal of prisoners from the terrorist group.

According to the Penitentiary Policy Observatory of the Victims of Terrorism Association (AVT), consulted by Europa Press, among the latest progressors is Xabier Atristain Gorosabel, to whom the third degree proposal is applied for the third time. Aitor García Aliaga and Iker Olabarrieta Colorado also appear.

The third degree of Xabier Atristain was previously appealed by the Prosecutor's Office, suspending his progression, alleging that his letter of forgiveness was not "expressive of a true process of repentance and repudiation" of ETA's terrorist past.

Of the 61 progressions, the National Court has revoked 15. The approvals to enjoy the semi-freedom regime affect 51 ETA prisoners, within a group that currently has 140 prisoners in one of the three prisons of the Basque Country, in addition to others seven who are serving sentences in Pamplona (Navarra).

That is, 36% of the ETA prisoners in Basque prisons - 80 in Zaballa, 37 in Martutene and 23 in Basauri - have benefited from progressions to the third degree in just over two years by the Basque Executive.

Of this group, there are eight who are already on conditional release by court decision and another four were released due to compliance.

Penitentiary Institutions - dependent on the Ministry of the Interior - approved 27 progressions to the third degree between October 2018 and April 2022, that is, before the approach of ETA prisoners and the transfer of powers to the Basque Government. In this way, the Basque Executive now has 34 more progressions than the central Government.

According to data from the AVT Observatory, in 2023 alone a total of 18 ETA prisoners have been released in Spain due to completion of their sentences. In addition, there are another 14 on conditional release or under house arrest.

The AVT Observatory points out that the transfer of prison competence to the Basque Government from October 1, 2021 was key, since the Basque penitentiary administration has opted for a "specific model that is characterized by promoting the open regime (third degree ) going from having to justify progression to the third degree (state model) to having to justify that a prisoner is not in third degree (Basque model)".