The Basque Government accepts the rapprochement of 93% of the ETA prisoners who have requested it and only 27% of the common ones

MADRID, 9 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Basque Government has accepted the approach to prisons in Euskadi of 93% of the prisoners of the terrorist group ETA who have requested it since exercising powers in penitentiary matters a year ago. In parallel, it has only given the green light to 27% of the petitions processed by prisoners serving sentences for common crimes, according to what was reported to Europa Press by Basque prison sources.

The regional Executive has received since it assumed the penitentiary management last October 388 requests for transfers to one of its three penitentiary centers by inmates serving sentences in other Spanish prisons.

Of the total petitions processed, 313 correspond to common prisoners, having accepted 87 (27.8%). The remaining 75 belong to those convicted of belonging to ETA who, after the end of the dispersion of the current central government, want to be brought closer to one of the three Basque prisons.

Of these 75 requests from ETA members, 70 have been accepted (93.3%) and in only five cases have they been denied, "mainly" because their roots are not accredited in the Basque autonomous community, but rather with Navarra or with the Basque Country French.

The Basque Government has rejected 226 of the 313 requests received for the transfer to Euskadi of prisoners convicted of common crimes, which represents 72.2% of the requests made. In this case, the rejection is due to the fact that they have not proven any roots in the autonomous community, as explained by the Department of Justice.

The same sources indicate that the only argument used by "the majority" of these inmates to prove their alleged roots in the Basque Country is that they committed their crime in the autonomous community.

On the contrary, the Autonomous Executive has also received 133 petitions from prisoners serving sentences in the Basque Country and who request to be transferred to prisons in other parts of the State, of which 104 have been approved (78.2%).

The Department of Justice of the Basque Government has explained that the fact that the percentage of accepted requests for rapprochement is significantly higher in the case of ETA prisoners than in that of the common prisoners responds to reasons of the inmates being rooted with the Basque Country.

In this way, it has been indicated that most of the inmates of the now defunct terrorist organization who have requested their approach to Basque prisons have accredited factors of social, family or work roots, with the autonomous community, which are the requirements that have been to take into account when transferring an inmate in order to favor their process of social reintegration.

On the contrary, the same sources point out that the fact that it has been suggested that prisoners who arrive in the Basque Country have access "on the second day" to the semi-liberty regime or to other penitentiary benefits has led some inmates to request their transfer to the autonomous community, despite not having "any roots".

In fact, the Department of Justice has explained that in the requests for transfer received by this type of prisoners, "rocambolesque" arguments are provided to prove an alleged attachment to the Basque Country that, in reality, does not exist.

"Some believe that it is easier to access our third grade, but this is not the case; on the contrary, because they have to prove an evolution in terms of attitude, assumption of the crime and commitment not to reoffend. That is what the Basque prison model is based on" , point out from the Department of Justice.

With the last twelve transfers of ETA prisoners on September 23, including Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, alias 'Txapote', and Henri Parot, two of the terrorists with the most bloodthirsty history, 70% of the gang's prisoners are already in some of the three prisons of the Basque Country.

According to the count of the Victims of Terrorism Association (AVT), with the policy of rapprochement promoted since 2018 by the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, it has allowed that there are currently 66 ETA prisoners serving sentences in the Zaballa prison (Álava).

Of the total of 123 prisoners in Basque prisons, in Martutene (Guipúzcoa) there are 28 ETA members serving sentences, the same figure as in Basauri (Vizcaya). In addition, in the case of a terrorist, the prison in which he is serving a sentence has not been specified, according to the aforementioned AVT figures.

The victims' association expressed its concern about the transfers to the Basque Country, as it is an autonomous community that is committed to a prison model that "strengthens the open regime."

Since February, with the first announcements of progressions, 24 third grades and a second grade have been agreed with the principle of flexibility in application of article 100.2. The AVT has recalled that more than half, 16, have been appealed by the National Court Prosecutor's Office and the first two judicial decisions that were issued have already been revoked: Gorka Martínez Ahedo and José Ignacio Bilbao Gaubeca.

The National Court previously revoked three other third degrees to ETA members, in this case granted at the initiative of Penitentiary Institutions, a body dependent on the Ministry of the Interior: Unai Fano, Jon Crespo and Iñigo Gutiérrez. In all cases there was no "express regret" for the crimes committed and the damage caused.