The second vice-president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, indicated this Monday that the reform which will be voted on this Tuesday in the Senate and which will allow 44 members of ETA to leave prison earlier is “the transposition of a European directive […] unanimously approved”, even by “the extreme right”, in reference to the favorable vote of Vox.
Díaz assured that the reform of the Organic Law of 2014 on the exchange of information on criminal records and the review of criminal judicial decisions in the EU “This concerns fundamental rights” that the government defends. According to what he assessed in front of the Arteixo media (La Coruña), the entire Brussels parliamentary group gave its agreement.
“It is a directive and therefore a source of European and Spanish law. We transposed it and it was unanimously approved in Europeinsisted Díaz, who said that although it is not common, the norm was also supported by the “extreme right.”
The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes spoke along the same lines, Felix Bolanoswho warned that PP and Vox supported the reform of the law on the exchange of information on criminal records and stressed that its parliamentary treatment had taken place “absolutely peaceful”.
The reform received unanimous approval from Congress on September 18, but the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) warned this Monday that the legal change includes the deletion of an article and the additional provision of the current norm that prevented , so far, that the convicted ETA members could benefit from a reduction in the sentences they served in France.
This is a transposition of European regulations, which will benefit, among others, prisoners such as Txapote. The murderer of Miguel Ángel Blanco will have his sentence reduced by six years, allowing him to be released from prison in a few months. His sentence ended in 2031. The PP has already announced that it would veto this “indecent” reform.
In a press release, the AVT denounces that this is the consequence of the deletion in Congress of an article and the additional provision of the current norm which until now prevented convicted members of ETA from being able to deduct the sentences they served in France.
The plenary session of the Congress ratified on September 18 unanimously the modification of this standard which entails the modification of the law on the exchange of information of criminal record and the examination of criminal resolutions in the EU and seeks to adapt Spanish regulations to European regulations, to the European Criminal Records Information System (Ecris).
“Discrimination”
IU Parliamentary Spokesperson and Sumar MP, Enrique Santiagodefended the amendment by placing it as a “correction” of “discrimination” that Spanish citizens in the EU suffer from prison sentences and considers that the controversy is part of the offensive of the PP and Vox against the reform of the system gag law.
As explained, the law aimed to “correct discrimination” so that Spaniards benefit from equal treatment in the application of European Community law. The reason is that at present any European citizen convicted in our country can enjoy some benefits execution of the sentence in their country of origin, unlike the Spaniards.
Santiago thinks that the only thing that is happening in this case is that PP and Vox “They don’t know what to do” continue their “offensive” against the reform of the law on citizen security announced by Bildu and the government and must therefore resort to “ghost of terrorism in the Basque Country which ceased to exist more than ten years ago.
It is for this reason that he urged these groups to clarify whether what they are defending is a “discriminatory application of the law based on the civil neighborhood of the person”.
