High Court receives 36 appeals for release from ETA inmates

Following this week’s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the so-called “Parot doctrine,” the Spanish High Court has received 36 petitions from ETA inmates either for release, or to have their penitentiary benefits recalculated.

The Parot doctrine was used by the Spanish government to control benefits for prisoners, by applying reductions to sentences for individual crimes rather than the 30-year maximum term limit, as laid out in the 1973 penal code. The decision of the ECHR in Strasbourg, however, means that the doctrine can no longer be applied.

On Friday, the 17 magistrates of the Criminal Section of the High Court will convene to study the petitions and discuss the guidelines for processing the cases. The panel will also consider two convicts in particular: Josefa Mercedes Ernaga, who was sentenced to 794 years in jail for her part in various attacks, including the 1987 Barcelona Hipercor supermarket bomb that killed 21 people; and Juan Manuel Píriz, who received 61 years for killing a former ETA member and has been incarcerated for 29 years.

The High Court has at least 37 cases of inmates affected by the Parot doctrine – which can also be applied to non-ETA inmates – on its desk, but these had been pending the outcome of Inés del Río’s appeal to the ECHR. Del Río was sentenced to nearly 4,000 years in jail for her part in a series of attacks carried out by ETA’s Madrid cell, which left 23 people dead. As a result of her appeal at the Strasbourg court, she was released from jail on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court has five ETA cases pending and will deliberate on the appeal of Ignacio Pujana at the next gathering of its plenary session. Pujana was sentenced in 1993 for the murder of businessman Ramiro Salazar.

The Constitutional Court also has 23 pending cases of inmates affected by the Parot doctrine, of which 22 are ETA members.