José Ángel Ochoa de Eribe, Basque political prisoner in Gorbeialdea, died last Tuesday from a serious illness in which he was in third grade. SARE held a demonstration in Vitoria-Gasteiz on Saturday to demand the release of seriously ill prisoners. Hundreds of people have joined the call.
The demonstration started at 17:00 in the afternoon of the Artium of Vitoria-Gasteiz in Plaza Nueva. Blanca Martínez de San Vicente, spokesman for Sare, recalled that he is the third Basque prisoner to die in 2019, together with Oier Gómez and Juan Mari Maizkurrena. Sare recalled that "José Ángel was a Basque prisoner who was released to die in his house" and denounced that the Spanish Government follows the same recipe as pp: "Seriously ill prisoners will only be released when they knock at the door of their death."
There are still many Basque political prisoners and prisoners suffering from incurable diseases in prison. On Saturday, the case of Ibon Fernández de Iradi was recalled "once again, because justice has decided to extend the period of resolution of his illness without taking into account the seriousness of his situation and to perpetuate his process back home," the spokesmen of the Network explained.
In addition, they called to continue working for the freedom of severely ill prisoners and announced that they will continue to take the streets of the city. The Spanish Government also made a final appeal for the release of severely ill prisoners for "humanity, dignity and legality".
José Ángel Ochoa de Eribe, possible preventable death
José Ángel Ochoa de Eribe, a Basque political prisoner in the Gorbeialdea, died last Tuesday as a result of a serious illness that led to his death. In 2015, she was diagnosed with breast cancer after a prison medical study. In 2016 he served three-quarters of his sentence, while the prison leadership "decided to keep José Ángel in prison until his situation worsened completely and became irreversible," Sare said.
Last June, the prison administration of Castellón granted him the third prison grade, based on article 104.4 of the penitentiary legislation, for his serious illness.
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