Prisoners

The Government will henceforth carry out directly the work previously carried out by victims' associations.

Sare has complained that this decision "has nothing to do with justice criteria."

SARE has appeared in Bilbao with several of its associates in recent years to call the demonstration on 9 January. SARE believes that there has been significant progress and has claimed the prison model approved in the Basque Parliament. However, the association has also alerted to alarming situations, citing the appeals of decisions taken by the Administration and the impetus for new judicial proceedings.

At a hearing this Sunday in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Sare criticized the appeal of the Prosecutor's Office of the National High Court against the progression of the degree of Henri Parot and Marisol Iparragirre.

On the proposal of the Zubieta Prison Treatment Board  "unanimously", the Government applied Article 100.2  and granted the prisoner a semi-free regime for the second time, on 2 September. 

He points out that not enough time has elapsed since he was given the semi-liberty regime that allows him to volunteer.

Covite has lamented the surrender of this regime to "a terrorist convicted of killing 39 people."

Hundreds of people demonstrated this Friday in Bilbao in support of the Basque prisoners on the big day of Aste Nagusia and called for the application of ordinary prison legislation. Sare recalled that in defence of his demands there is a "red marked" quote in the calendar, that of the march he calls every year in Bilbao on 9 January, and stressed that he hopes that it will be the last as the end of his career.

Sare and Bilboko Konpartsak have called for a Home Day on 28 August, in the middle of Big Week, to proclaim the return home of Basque prisoners, refugees and deportees through a demonstration and a popular meal, and at today's hearing they have set themselves the goal of making the 2027 festivities the first without prisoners or repressors.

Hundreds of people have gathered in the 11 herring areas of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa to demand that prisoners still in captivity apply ordinary prison policy. 

Salhaketa Araba calls for greater transparency about what happened and questions the attention paid to the 60-year-old prisoner before his death. The association claims that what happened "cannot be understood as an isolated event".

The associations have argued that the implementation of the ordinary prison policy would allow the gradual progression of ETA prisoners and, consequently, their final exit from the closed regime, and have reiterated their commitment to peaceful coexistence.

The Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats has paid tribute to Councillor Miguel Ángel Blanco in Ermua on the 29th anniversary of his murder by ETA, with the presence of his sister Mari Mar Blanco, the president of the Basque people, Javier de Andrés, and the deputy secretary of Cuca Gamarra.

The Sare group has stated that the process of returning prisoners and refugees to the Basque Country is "on the last step of the ladder" and has called for the application of ordinary prison legislation to overcome it and for continued social mobilization, coinciding with the beginning of the sanfermines.

Pradales and Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska have taken advantage of the event to acknowledge the prison officials killed by ETA.

The spokesman for the Network for the Rights of Prisoners of ETA has defended the work being done by the Basque Prison Boards and has considered that, 15 years after the definitive cessation of violence by ETA, an era of confrontation should be closed in order to enter a phase of greater coexistence, always with "full respect" for the pain of the victims of violence.

The Donostiarra prison also experienced the period of greatest degradation and saturation of Basque prisons in the 1980s. It was designed to house 150 prisoners, but it received around 350 in the 1980s. Looking back, we can see the transformation of the prison system.

Sare has held a massive event in Arrasate today to take stock of his career since his founding and claim the need to "start ending a stage." "The end of the network, if things are done well, will be a collective and discreet victory," they said.