Of the 69 petitions made by Basque prisoners until 21 January to move from first grade to second grade prison, 66 have been excluded, according to the Gara newspaper.

Although the Minister of the Interior of the Spanish Government, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has advocated the gradual opening of prison policy, there have been no real changes in the last half year.

According to the study carried out by the Social Forum between July and September, 44 of the 46 applications submitted had already been discarded. Exactly the same percentage as current data.

Data from the Prisoners Commission indicate that 60 per cent of Basque prisoners have been in prison for more than 15 years and that almost all of them are in first degree prison.