The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has not yet responded to a preliminary question posed last December by the National Court in which the legality of the regulation has been questioned which prevents sentences served in other European Union countries from being set aside in Spain.
The case analyzed is that of ETA member Soledad Iparaguirre, Anboto, and the prejudicial issue was raised in December 2023, after in April of the same year the Supreme annul the acquittal that the National Court had granted after being tried for participating in the delivery of explosive material to a command of the terrorist group which ultimately attacked the Oviedo police station in July 1997.
The second section of the Criminal Chamber (José Antonio Mora, José Ricardo de Prada and María Fernanda García) addressed the CJEU on the underlying issue of sentence reduction for ETA members: if Spanish law complies with European regulations by not deducting from the maximum compliance sentences served in another EU country.
In Anboto’s case, the court highlighted that, with current legislation, he would serve a sentence of 20 years in France and an additional 30 years in Spain, which represents a sentence “a clear punitive disproportion”.
