ETA inmates’ collective to prioritize elderly for early release

The ETA prisoners collective is to draw up a detailed list of the situations of the 546 terrorists held within the Spanish penitentiary system in order to give priority to inmates over 70 or suffering from health problems in petitioning the state for early release, sources from the abertzale pro-independence left have said.

After the arrest three weeks ago of Arantza Zulueta and other radical lawyers belonging to ETA's so-called prisoners' front, a structure designed to keep terrorist inmates in line with the group's ideology of not recognizing Spanish penitentiary jurisdiction, the fate of ETA inmates following the European Court of Human Right's striking down of the so-called "Parot doctrine" has passed to the hands of the abertzale.

Since last year's ruling from Strasbourg against the doctrine — a legal mechanism to keep dangerous prisoners in jail beyond the terms of their original sentence — dozens of ETA inmates have walked free. As well as applying for early releases, the abertzale will coordinate selective petitions "for prisoners to be moved to jails in the Basque Country or have their category reduced," the sources said.