Prisons transfers eleven ETA prisoners to prisons in the Basque Country and Navarra

The victims' associations criticize the transfer of ETA members who have "a whopping 40 murders"

The General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions, dependent on the Ministry of the Interior, has agreed this Thursday with the Department of Equality, Justice and Social Policies of the Basque Government the transfer of nine prisoners of the terrorist group ETA to the Basque Country, for which -according to data from the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT)-- translates into 118 ETA members who would already be in the prisons of the autonomous community.

In addition, the transfer of two other inmates to the Pamplona Penitentiary Center has also been resolved, for which the transfers to Navarra amount to 20. In total, 202 ETA members have already been transferred, according to the victims' association

In a statement, the AVT criticized the fact that the Government continues "ignoring the victims and rewarding their executioners", pointing out at the same time that the eleven ETA members transferred to the Basque Country and Navarra have "a whopping 40 murders" and "without having collaborated with the Justice, without having apologized to the victims of terrorism and without repenting". "It is Sánchez's payment to Bildu for approving his Democratic Memory Law", he has denounced.

The president of Dignity and Justice, Daniel Portero, has also charged Pedro Sánchez's Executive for bringing the former ETA leader Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi to the Logroño prison, sentenced to thirty years for ordering the murder of his father, who was chief prosecutor of Andalusia in the year 2000, Luis Portero.

In addition, he has assured that the transfer is a "reaction" of the Government to the complaints that the association has filed in the National Court and that have caused the reopening of seven cases against the heads of ETA, including the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco.

Among those transferred is the ETA member Ainhoa ​​Múgica, transferred from Logroño to the Basque Country, and sentenced in 2009 by the National High Court to 75 years in prison for her participation in the attack that killed Santos Santamaría Avendaño. She was sentenced to 1,243 years in prison as the author of the attack that killed Manuel Carrasco Almansa, Santiago Esteban Junquer, José Ramón Intriago Esteban, Florentino López del Castillo, Félix Ramos Bailón and Martín Rosa Varela, on December 11, 1995 in Madrid. In addition, she is serving a 20-year sentence for the attack in 2001 against the Undersecretary General of the Scientific Police, Juan Junquera, in which he and 96 other people were injured.

She was also sentenced to 18 years in prison for a crime of terrorist acts for having ordered the members of ETA's "Xoxua commando" to carry out the attack against the Torre de Logroño on June 10, 2001.

Gorka Palacios Alday will go from the Madrid VII Penitentiary Center to a prison in the Basque Country and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his participation in the attack that killed Pedro Antonio Blanco on January 21, 2000 in Madrid. He was also sentenced to 83 years as the author of the attack that ended the life of Luis Ortiz de la Rosa in 2001 in Madrid.

Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi will be transferred from the Logroño Penitentiary Center to San Sebastián. He entered prison on July 26, 2010 and is serving an accumulated sentence of 30 years for murders, homicides and crimes of attack, terrorism, havoc and possession of explosives and arms deposit.

For his part, Juan Ramón Carasatorre Aldaz will go from the El Dueso Penitentiary Center (Cantabria) to the Pamplona Penitentiary Center. He was sentenced in 2011 by the National Court to 30 years in prison as the author of the murder of the PP councilor, Gregorio Ordóñez.

Ibai Ayensa Laborda will go from the Logroño prison to the Basque Country and has been imprisoned since March 5, 2004 and is serving a sentence of 31 years and 15 days for the crimes of attack, weapons storage, possession of explosives and illicit association, and due to a lack of injuries.

José Lorenzo Ayestarán Legorburu is another of the ETA members who left the Soria Penitentiary Center to move to San Sebastián. The National Court sentenced him in 2015 to 36 years in prison for the murder of Antonio Recio Claver, and in 2014, for the murder of Eugenio Lázaro Valle, confirming the following year the Supreme Court the 27 years of prison imposed. In addition, in 2014 he was sentenced to 81 years in prison for the murder of Avelino Palma Brioa, Ángel Prado Mella and José Luis Vázquez Platas.

Ainhoa ​​García Montero is transferred from the Asturias Penitentiary Center to a prison in the Basque Country. She was convicted in 2011 for the murder of José Ángel Santos Laranga and Josu Leonet Azkune. The Fourth Section of the National Court also sentenced him to 22 years for a crime of possession and storage of explosives and two crimes of weapons storage related to the arsenal that the "Buruntza command" kept in a Zizurkil apartment and a Zaldibia fish market. (Guipuzkoa).

Eneko Gogeaskoetxea Arronategui will also go from the El Dueso Penitentiary Center (Cantabria) to the Zaballa Penitentiary Centre. He was sentenced in 2016 by the National Audience to 92 years in prison for the death of the ertzaina José María Aguirre Larraona during the attempted assassination of the King Emeritus during the 1997 inauguration of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao.

Juan Carlos Iglesias Chouzas will leave the Dueñas prison, in Palencia, to move to the Zaballa Penitentiary Center. In 2003 he was sentenced to a total of 82 years in prison for his participation in the attack perpetrated by ETA on November 7, 1991 in Erandio and which ended the life of the child Fabio Moreno.

Likewise, in June 2006 he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his relationship with the attack against Ramón Bañuelos Echevarría. In 2006 he was also sentenced to more than 1,200 years in prison for his participation in the attack perpetrated on September 2, 1990 in Bilbao, which ended the lives of José Manuel Alba Morales and Luis Alberto Sánchez García. In addition, he is serving a 35-year sentence for his participation in the attack that killed Luis Alfredo Achurra Cianca on December 14, 1990 in Amorebieta. To this is added a sentence of 52 years in prison for his participation in the attack that ended the life of José Manuel Cruz Martín on April 8, 1991 in Baracaldo.

Patxi Javier Macazaga Azurmendi will go from the El Dueso Penitentiary Center (Cantabria) to San Sebastián. In 2004 he was sentenced to 39 years in prison for being responsible for the attack that killed Juan María Jaúregui Apalategui. That year he was also sentenced to 81 years in prison as responsible for the attack that ended the life of Ramón Díaz García and another 81 years for the murder of José Ángel Santos Laranga and Josu Leonet Azkune.

Lastly, ETA member Luis Mariñelarena Garciandia will go to Pamplona from the Dueñas Penitentiary Center (Palencia). In 2002 he was sentenced to 100 years in prison for being responsible for the attack in which Fernando Buesa Blanco and his escort Jorge Diez Elorza were assassinated in February 2000.