Urrutikoetxea was arrested on 16 May in the village of Sallanches in the French Alps in the State of Saboya. He has since remained in La Santa prison in Paris, where he has been sentenced to two prison sentences.

With reference to judicial sources, the EFE agency has reported that on 19 June Urrutikoetxea will pass through the Paris Court of Appeal in the wake of a 2010 judgment calling for seven years in prison for a crime of belonging to ETA’s management. On 28 June, he will be presented at the Paris Correctional Tribunal, in response to his request for eight years in jail imposed in 2017 for participating in the political representation of ETA in Norway between 2011 and 2013.

Manifesto of support

The arrest of Josu Urrutikoetxea has led several world political figures to sign a manifesto calling for his freedom following the arrest of Josu Urrutikoetxea, the Liberation newspaper. Among others, Slovenian Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek, French politics Helene Franco and US thinker Noam Chomsky.