Last September, the PP presented to the Senate, where it enjoys an absolute majority against the government of Pedro Sánchez, a proposal aimed at modifying the general prison organic law and limiting the room for maneuver of Basque prisons with progressions in grades. and liberations from ETA. prisoners. According to the documentation recorded in the Upper House, the “popular” wants to modify article 72.6 to make the transfer to the second or third degree of people convicted of terrorism subject to “effective” collaboration with the police and judicial authorities. They also want to repeal article 100.2 of the prison regulations, which authorizes semi-liberty, on the understanding that it can be obtained with “a simple letter of forgiveness to the victims” and without contributing to “the clarification of crimes”.
In October 2021, the Basque Country received the management of prisons, agreed with the central government a few months before but pending since 1979, when the Statute was approved. It is the only community with Catalonia to have this competence. The Regional Executive manages the penitentiary centers (Zaballa, Basauri and Martutene until the imminent opening of Zubieta) but is subject to the same legislation set by the central government. This summer, with the arrival of Imanol Pradales in Ajuria Enea, the PNV renegotiated the coalition agreement with the PSE-EE and one of the changes was that the management of prisons passed into the hands of the socialists, more precisely from councilor María Jesús Saint Joseph. .
ETA prisoners in Spain – some remain in France, according to Etxerat data – are entirely in the prisons of Alava, Biscay, Gipuzkoa and Navarre once the policy of removal and dispersion ends . Only those in Pamplona, barely a dozen, are under the direct supervision of the State Penitentiary Institutions agency. Although the PP has criticized since 2021 an alleged favorable treatment of this group and suggested that the transfer of prisons was linked to the improvement of the situation of terrorist detainees, it was classic to hear Carlos Iturgaiz speak of the prisons as “centers of resort for ETA members. .”-, it was with the transition from the PNV to the PSE-EE that a proposal was registered aimed at reducing the room for maneuver of the Basque Executive, which has always hidden behind the fact that progressions, permits and other changes are implemented. with favorable technical reports from the processing commissions and which are then subject to judicial review by the National Court.
In August, the Sare platform indicated that during the previous twelve months, 34 progressions towards the third degree had been proposed to ETA prisoners by the treatment commissions and that the Administration had accepted 32. The prosecution appealed 16 % of them, or six cases. The National Court revoked four of the six concessions contested by the public prosecutor and ruled in favor of the Basque prisons in two of them.
“Cynicism” and GAL
Legislative reform was discussed during a tense face-to-face between the leader of the Basque PP, Javier de Andrés, and councilor San José, during the government control session held this Friday at the Basque Parliament. The debate, bitter and with crossed accusations, followed the tension between the two parties over another legislative reform known this week, which affects the calculation of sentences served in other countries of the European Union and which will accelerate the effective release of around forty ETAs. prisoners.
De Andrés suggested that the PSE-EE does not respect the law for political reasons and referred to the examples of semi-freedom of Harriet Iragui and Luis Mariñelarena, “who have not served their entire sentence, they do not “did not recognize the damage caused, asking express forgiveness from the victims, as the law says, and, above all, they did not collaborate with justice”, in the words of De Andrés. Councilor San José joked that it is not credible to denounce the non-compliance with prison regulations and at the same time try to modify them to limit the room for maneuver of Basque prisons. “And he wants to change it at the very moment when the socialists take charge of prison management in Euskadi, not before. Chance? What they don’t say is that this legal reform would not change the reality of those currently in prison. The law does not have retroactive effects, as the Constitution says,” replied the head of Justice and Human Rights, who has already been Minister of Justice (without Prisons) with Iñigo Urkullu among 2016 and 2020.
San José sees “cynicism” in the PP. “Cynicism attempts to link academic progression to so-called political pacts. President José María Aznar has released more than 300 terrorists, including 64 with sentences exceeding 20 years, while ETA has killed. With what legal criteria, with what relationships? “Perhaps you know, because at that time you were the Government delegate,” said the advisor, getting the period wrong regarding the position of De Andrés, who held this position with Mariano Rajoy. And he continued: “One of the released prisoners killed my companion Juan Priede. “I don’t blame them, but not even half a lesson from them.”
“Some people become very dignified when they talk about terrorism and now they start lecturing. Instead of coming to Parliament, they go on stage to say how things should be done and how badly the People’s Party has done. Look, we have always acted in the face of terrorism in accordance with the rule of law. It was not the Popular Party that formed a criminal gang to assassinate terrorists,” replied De Andrés, probably referring to the creation of the GAL. “They first freed the seditious, then the corrupt and they ended up freeing the terrorists,” said the leader of the Basque PP.
