In 2008, the European Union approved the recasting of the Union’s prison sentences, which meant that years of imprisonment of prisoners sentenced in different states for the same crime would be unified. For example, one person was sentenced to seven years in prison for belonging to an armed group in Germany and, after his execution, was extradited to Poland, where he was again tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Well, being convicted of the same crime, he must now be eight years old and will be released. If he were in Spain, the prisoner would have to be in full fifteen years, so in total he would be in prison for 22 years.
That is what has happened to many Basque prisoners, and many of them should already be on the street. But when the directive came into force in Spain in 2014, the PP that was then in the government decided to derogate from this law: it would only apply to prisoners convicted after 2010, so that a lot of Basque prisoners would be left out of that measure.
According to reports this Thursday, when six years ago EH Bildu and the PSOE negotiated the support of the former, EH Bildu put the issue of prisoners on the table and to this end, he gradually requested the repeal of the emergency measures for Basque prisoners. And in this logic, the PSOE ended the dispersion in the long process that culminated in 2023.
According to the newspaper, this logic will also repeal the directive on sentencing and the procedure for amending the law has been in place for months in Congress. Among others, 11 occasions have been tabled in which amendments have been tabled to the entire budget, and no one has been tabled. The amendment has unanimously crossed each of the doors to be crossed. The legislative route has therefore taken place unconsciously when several associations of victims have warned that this art affects several members of ETA, and some of them will be expelled soon.
The pp and Vox have made self-criticism then and have acknowledged that this is a mistake, have asked for forgiveness from victim associations and have demanded the PSOE to "rectify". The amendment of the law has been dealt with by Sumar, and the PSOE announced on Thursday that it will continue its proceedings in the Upper House in a trumatic session in the Senate.
Request for review of penalties for 40 years
Thirteen years from the end of ETA’s armed activity will be completed within three months, and according to ETXERAT data, there are still 130 prisoners in the Basque Political Prisoners Collective. Once this derogation has been repealed, the following objectives would be the third grade and law 7/2003. The third grade is a kind of string pull from the National High Court and the Boards of Penitentiary Institutions and Basque political prisoners have difficulty getting out with it.
However, the biggest problem now is Law 7/2003, which the PP put into effect in 2003, to extend to 40 years the maximum penalty of 30 years in cases of terrorism. In essence, this was a measure to punish ETA prisoners more. According to ETXERAT data, this law would currently affect more than 60 prisoners of eta. ETA disappeared six years ago, and in this context there have been many occasions when prisoners have called for the repeal of this law and, if not, for the review of penalties. Several European countries recognise the full prison sentence in their legislation, but in practice it is not complied with, as they have mechanisms for reviewing the sentence at the age of 15 or at the age of 20, at the age of 25... when the prisoner leaves the street.
Since we were transferred to Euskal Herria from the prisons of the Spanish State, in the prison of Zaballa we have found many deficiencies in the field of communication. We have fewer and shorter face-to-face contacts, we have had to make visits to the speaker in poor technical... [+]
In prisons dependent on the Basque Government, Basque political prisoners have lost a great deal in terms of communication with our family and friends. The number of monthly prefixes is lower and their duration is shorter. So, even if we get closer, we devote less time to the... [+]
Plataforma herritarrak gaur egun arte lortutakoaren balioa nabarmendu du, eta adierazi du gizarteak “bultzada bat” eman behar duela “oraindik erbestean eta deportazioan daudenak” etxeratzeko. Etorkizuneko belaunaldiei gizarte hobeago bat uzteko garrantzia... [+]
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I've thought if Palestinian children also have this question in their head with our book. How many duels are missing to end the genocide? How many children should Israel kill with the complicity of the states of the world.
Are you going to ask these questions to your mothers? Or... [+]