First of all, how is Patxi Ruiz physically and psychologically?

She's physically very weak. The last time we saw it was Monday: it's very thin, it's 60 kilos high, 1.80 meters, and I could barely walk, with yellowing skin and tongue very swollen from not drinking water. Three days ago, she didn't urinate. He has a very dry mouth and few forces, he has a hard time talking, he does it very slowly. Go double, it's hard to focus your view. It has a great difficulty in focusing attention and maintaining dialogue. Patxi's trusted doctors told us all this is normal because oxygen doesn't get into the brain.

From a mental point of view it is very hard, so far it continues to say that it will stand firm in its objectives.

Is the risk of death imminent?

Yes. The doctor told us that Patxi may have a heart attack at any time. The risk of death is real.

Do you talk to Ruiz every day?

In the morning he talks to his mother and a friend, in the evenings with me. We agreed that if he doesn't call, I have to call the jail to find out if he's OK.

The facts happen to a chain of events when Ruiz starts a hunger and thirst strike. Can you explain to us what it has brought to this situation?

It all started because prison has not taken any health security measures in this state of alarm. Patxi started to file complaints in court, and he had no answer, neither did I. Faced with this, he decided to make protests in the courtyard: at 9:00 in the morning, to concentrate with a banner, peacefully and smoothly. The last concentration has concentrated around 80 people, who have been actively involved. On Saturday, 9 May, in the dungeon, two officials came, one woman and the owner of module 8, who removed the banner, very badly, telling him that he was responsible for everything and that it would have consequences. He received threats to his life.

Later, when he was alone in the cell, he suffered an anxiety crisis, caused by the fear he suffered. In this context, he performed several operations in the arm. She had had nine staples in the ward and the doctor, however bad it was, did not want to provide him with any tranquilizer for the pain, even though Patxi had asked him. They only offered him a Valium.

That was Saturday. On Sunday, on the one hand, we filed complaints both at the Murcia Guard Court and at the Madrid Central Prison Surveillance Court against the official for threats to Patxi. For his part, Patxi decided to start a hunger and thirst strike the next day, Monday morning.

Once the hunger and thirst strike by Ruiz began, what is the prison stance?

The jail is being very bad, they don't care if Patxi dies. On Sunday we went down and walked in without problems. On Monday we went back and asked the director for a meeting to talk about the situation, and they told us that, literally, the address has nothing to do with us.

In addition, in the morning we were prevented from visiting Patxi as a lawyer. We had to call the deanship, file a complaint, order a thousand... At first they let me in, but not my partner, then me and him yes, then the two who don't, then yes... a thousand laps. At the end of 12:30 my colleague entered, and I was not left. I reappeared at 16:30 hours and was able to enter without any problems. But when I left the visit, I had at the door the deputy director and two other employees screaming why I went back in.

Until three or four days ago, the prison said it had no news of Francisco Ruiz Romero's hunger and thirst strike. I denied the facts. And so far, they've done nothing. The nurse started taking Patxi's weight and temperature about four days ago, but the doctor refuses to take care of him. This is a medical irresponsibility, an omission of the duty of relief. Today we will file a complaint against the doctor.

In prisons there is a protocol for a hunger strike and a prisoner's thirst. It specifies that medical services must perform a daily technical report, blood tests and others. The doctor has not been with Patxi all these days and the reports that have been made only collect very superficial data: weight, temperature, pulsations... but they should do another type of analysis: potassium level... definitely a follow-up. This is the protocol for all prisons and they are not being complied with.

The jail offers an IV serum to Ruiz, isn't it?

Yeah, he's offered to take him to the prison ward and he's put him on serum there. Patxi said he will accept that if ordered by a court order from the National Court, which will force him to take him to the hospital and get his serum. What happens is that you don't trust what you can get through your veins in the jail ward. He wants the National Court and the Central Court to be controlling everything, because he is afraid that the prison will do something against his life.

You communicated the situation to the Central Prison Monitoring Court, which has communicated it in a car, in which you said that you are officially informed. Can it change the situation?

You can change it, you've already forced the jail to send something egitera.Txosten clinics to jail. I have informed the supervisory court that ten days later there is no report, that the prison has not followed the protocol.

Could Ruiz be with trusted doctors?

At first we asked the psychologist to have the opportunity to talk to Patxi and visit him. We have no answer to the visit, but on Monday he was allowed to call the psychologist. He was initially told that he would have to remove one of the lists of the ten phones authorized for calls to call the psychologist, he refused, and eventually the jail agreed not to influence the list. For half an hour he was talking to the psychologist. Trusted doctors have also asked us to take care of us, so far we have no answer. The doctor has called to jail to ask about the state of Patxi, and they have replied that they will not give him any information.

What does Ruiz demand to stop the hunger and thirst strike?

His claim is that the principal official should be removed from module 8. That is where it will not move. It is that official who has threatened his life. They always tell him that he will pay, that there are many prisoners arriving in the morning and still sleeping and that they never wake up. During his years in prison, Patxi has seen many prisoners killed and is truly scared. He says he prefers to fight rather than think his mother has committed suicide.

Was he in that module?

Yes. Then they took him to module 6, which is called respectful, and in yesterday's call he told us that they had to move to 10 to be with three more.

Can he be better there?

We don't know, when he called me at 18:00, he was picking up the cell to go to module 10, but he didn't have the strength to take his things and take them. I told him to help another prisoner. Since then we have not spoken.

After changing the module, does it still have the same claim?

Yes.

Ruiz has been in jail for years. How is his prison being?

He was imprisoned eighteen years ago and he still has twelve more to comply with. He has been in Murcia for three years. The relationship with the prison has always been very bad, because he is a prisoner who demands a great deal of his rights.

On December 31, he wounded himself in a sign of protest at the death of his son.

In New Year’s Eve a telephone communication was established with her mother, to which an official cut the call when she was still more than four minutes away. Patxi is very sensitive to his mother, his father died a year ago, and at that time they were talking about his father. As he has done now, the young man was injured as a protest with beard plates. In the upper arm, I wasn't trying to cut my veins or something like that.

Do you see the possibility that Prisons will accept Ruiz’s request?

No.

Is there another way out?

Arrival of the Judicial Order of the Central Court and transfer to the hospital. At the moment it would be the fastest possible route. That is how we would gain time. The current situation I don't know how long it can last, but not much: today is the tenth day of hunger and thirst strike, and the doctors told us at the beginning that it could last about five days.

Now, since the National High Court, pressure has begun to be brought to bear on the prisoners of eta. Yesterday [Tuesday] at 00:00 p.m. at the Ertzaintza Surveillance Court, through a statement, we said that Patxi is on hunger and thirst strike since midnight on 10 May. The court noted in his car that the strike began last August 13. And at this time [Wednesday, 17:00 PM] we have been told that the court has ordered the prison. It's not common for you to react so quickly. The court has demanded that the prison immediately send a report on Patxi's general situation, not just on his state of health. The National High Court is putting pressure on jail for not sending anything. The next logical step would be for the court to make a court order in which a serum is imposed on Patxi.