The government is about to implement the Bildu roadmap: 44 ETA members will be able to deduct the years in prison they served in France and seven could be released in the coming months. On September 18, Congress unanimously approved, with the votes of the Popular Party and Vox, a judicial reform aimed at modifying Organic Law 7/2014 – on the exchange of information on criminal records and examination of criminal resolutions in the European Union – with the aim of applying a European transposition, i.e. allowing the modification of criminal records within the European Union.
A reform which hides in itself one of the historic demands of Bildu and those around ETA. In the modification proposed by the government, a detail was added which, a priori, had gone unnoticed by the rest of the political groups: the commutation of the sentence, that is to say the subtraction of the Spanish sentence from the time some prisoners had spent time behind bars. in other countries. In the case of 43 prisoners of the ETA, his release from prison in Spain would be reduced the years they would have served in France.
“It is a transposition of a European directive, directive 2019/884 relating to criminal records”there are sources from Sumar. Generally speaking, the directive requires the elimination of any rules that could discriminate against citizens of the European Union. In the case of Spain, sources from Yolanda Díaz’s training indicate that “we have had a problem with the application which obliges states to take into account the sentences handed down by other member states for equivalent crimes when of determining the execution of sentences”. . This discrimination was experienced by any Spanish citizen who had been convicted in a European Union country and who would end up serving their sentence in Spain.
Thus, if everything goes as planned and the reform is definitively approved in the Senate, more than 40 members of ETA will benefit, including Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, better known as Txapote. As stated ‘The confidential’When the amendment to Organic Law 7/2014 comes into force, the sentence of one of the former leaders of the terrorist group will be reduced by a total of six years – the sentence he served on French territory. So instead of finishing his sentence in 2031, Txapote could be released from prison in the coming months.
Concerning the argument that the Government uses to justify the reform and apply European transposition, the Strasbourg Court has repeatedly confirmed that time spent in French prisons will not count for punishment in Spain. This decision would therefore, to a certain extent, reverse the Executive’s argument that the application of the directive constitutes a European requirement.
What will happen this Tuesday in the Senate?
On the side of the Popular Party, they affirmed that the Sánchez government “he could have lied to the whole House” and, therefore, “they must study what they will do in the Senate.” “If this outrage and indecency to which this Parliament has been subjected and the deception of all the parliamentary groups of the Congress of Deputies are confirmed, of course, from the Popular Party, we will study all political, legal and parliamentary tools to prevent this be consumed,” Noelia Núñez said in a statement to Congressional media.
But can the “popular” send the reform back to Congress after having been unanimously approved on September 18? If we base ourselves on what is established in the Constitution, the formation of the Feijóo I could vote againstbut not stop the publication of the reform in the Official State Journal (BOE) in which mention would be made of the contrary vote of the Senate.
Indeed, the presentation report has already been approved without adding any amendment and the The Senate does not have the power to withdraw a bill. “We are going to study it because it seems extremely serious and worrying to us if it is confirmed that the government of Pedro Sánchez has actually deceived this chamber, all the parliamentary groups, for the benefit of its Bildu partners,” added Núñez.
For his part, Félix Bolaños, Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes of Spain, assured that the modification was being processed parliamentaryly and that It has nothing to do with the government. “This is a modification of a law that guarantees the application of the European directive in Spain. It is a peaceful parliamentary procedure. In Congress, all groups voted for, for the PP, for Vox… This procedure also continued in the Senate where there were not even any amendments”, declared the socialist.
The Association of Victims of Terrorism, against reform
According to the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT), with this provision, the Government is ETA “on the verge of fulfilling its partners’ roadmap” and he recalled that he had already warned against this possibility in February 2022, even if the Executive had then denied it “categorically”. This victims’ association is surprised by the support of the PP, Vox and the UPN for this reform, and wonders if these parties have not realized that it will also affect the members of ETA.
The entity chaired by Maite Araluce considered that, even if this was rectified in the Senate, “it will only be a patch” and that “sooner or later, the Bilduetar roadmap aimed at emptying the prisons will be respected”. Likewise, he criticized the fact that the new PES advisor of the Basque Government, María Jesús San José, promotes a penitentiary model that “gives priority to the semi-freedom of prisoners”, with 82 progressions towards the third degree of 67 members of ETA.
“If last week we knew that the new PES advisor of the Basque Government appointed by Sánchez, María Jesús San José, promotes the PNV prison model which gives priority to the semi-liberty of prisoners (and there are already 82 progresses towards the third degree out of 67 members of ETA), today we woke up,” he noted. The AVT concludes that victims feel “increasingly alone”, while the Government “he continues to care more about pleasing terrorists”.
