ETA prisoners collective announces plans to begin requesting transfers for inmates

ETA convicts serving time in Spanish jails announced at the weekend that they are to begin requesting transfers to prisons in the Basque Country, as they had first announced in a communiqué released on December 28.

According to the statement, which was released online and via the Basque publication Gara, the requests for transfer from prisons far from the Basque Country to jails closer to home will first be filed for convicts who are ill or over the age of 70. The requests will be made, the statement said, “with a dignified attitude; that’s to say, without denying what we are.”

ETA’s prisoner collective announced at the end of December that it would reverse one of its policies, and recognize the legality of Spain’s penitentiary system. The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had been refusing to allow any transfers of prisoners, or any improvement of conditions in jail, until the Basque separatist group made that move.

This weekend’s announcement revealed that the prisoners held in Spain are going to request a transfer to the Zaballa jail in the Basque Country. Meanwhile, those imprisoned in France will request transfers to jails located closer to their homes and families.

This weekend’s announcement — and the statement released in December, which included recognition of the damage caused by ETA’s campaign — comes two years after the terrorist group announced a definitive end to its campaign of violence. It also came just two months after the European Court of Human Rights struck down the so-called “Parot doctrine,” which led to the release of around 10 percent of ETA convicts still serving sentences.