The first news of the death was issued on Friday by the newspaper El Mundo, which added to the deceased people imprisoned for a week. According to information published by Naiz on Monday, the prisoner was in the jail ward, under the protocol of suicides, but was found at 8:00 with signs of corpses and “overdose”. On 1 October 2021, the Government acquired competence from the prisons of Zaballa, Martutene and Basauri, and since then there have been six prisoners who died in prison: three in Zaballa de Álava, one in Martutene de Gipuzkoa and two in Basauri de Bizkaia.

The government has not confirmed the death until Tuesday morning. First, the Department of Equality, Justice and Social Policy has provided the information in response to the demands of different media. Spokesman Bingen Zupiria is then asked at the press conference after the Governing Council.

Transparency or opacity

The Department of Equality, Justice and Social Policy has given the same explanation to the media Berria, eitb or Naiz: that the body did not show signs of violence, that the body has autopsied itself according to the protocol and is awaiting the results. The same information has been given by Zupiria: “Those who found it have said that there were no signs of violence in their environment and, at this point, to have more information, we should know the autopsy they have carried out.”

With regard to the way information is managed, the Government has argued that they do not make public “such regrettable facts” in order, inter alia, to respect the “privacy of the deceased and his relatives”. They stress, on the contrary, that on Friday the family and parliamentary political groups were notified of what happened.

César Manzanos, a member of the Salhaketa Araba association, has given an opposite view to Berria. He accuses the government of being “dark and opaque” with death, although what happened is “very serious”: “We find it incredible not to give public information about a case like this.”