The Ministry of Internal affairs has informed on Monday of the next transfer to a prison near the Basque Country’s ETA prisoner José María Arregi Erostarbe, Fiti, of 73 years and one of the three members, the dome of the terrorist arrested in the French town of Bidart in 1992. Arregi Erostarbe, sentenced to hundreds of years in prison for their implications in several attacks, is now in the Penitentiary Centre of Villena (Alicante) and in the next few days will occupy a cell in the of Villabona (Asturias) after the Board of Treatment of the first prison made a transfer “to a center close to their family links”. The proposal has been approved by the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions, as reported by Interior on Friday in a note.
The change in prison will not mean, however, a change in the prison regime that governs their day-to-day. Classified in first grade, the more hard, the past month of may, the judge of enforcement of sentences of the National court, José Luis de Castro, confirmed that it will apply article 100.2 of the Penitentiary Regime, which softens in part. Fiti, which extinguished his conviction in 2026, it was the last of the three heads eta of the dome of Bidart who asked forgiveness of the victims of terrorism. He did so with a letter that referred to the Audiencia Nacional in 2018, after the consummation of the dissolution of ETA in may of that year, according to detailed judicial sources. Before that he had already done that José Luis Álvarez Santacristina, Txelis, and Francisco Múgica Garmendia, Pakito, who distanced themselves by the terrorist organization when the terrorist group was still active.
Also on Monday, Interior has announced the progression to third-degree prison regime or open another ETA prisoner, Gorka Fraile Iturralde. Sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes of damage, possession of explosives and weapons depot, Friar had already improved their situation in prison when it was moved from the prison of Badajoz, where he was detained at the El Dueso (Cantabria). Has been precisely that the Board’s Treatment of this last center the who has proposed that access to the semi after considering that during his imprisonment, has had a “positive development” and has also asked for forgiveness from the victims.
The progression of the degree will in your case also your transfer to the prison of Pamplona, the nearest to his place of residence, for which the furlough is effective. In addition, the new classification and the fact that it met the three-quarters of condemnation in December of 2015 they open the door to the prisoner etarra -jailed since April 1998 – may apply for parole. Friar Iturralde as he enjoyed last June of a permit of three days.
With the transfer of Arregui Erostarbe and the semi-freedom of Friar Iturralde are already 31 ETA prisoners that have been enhanced their prison situation since Pedro Sánchez assumed the Presidency of the Government and announce a change of prison policy after the dissolution of the terrorist organization. The majority of prisoners benefited have been approached to prisons near the Basque Country. Others have been granted semi-liberty. In the last year and a half, about 120 prisoners of ETA of the 219 that there are in prisons in spain have submitted briefs on the law-abiding in order to improve their situation in prison. In them, they demand to change your current classification prison in the first grade, the more hard by the second, which would allow them to apply for permits if they meet other requirements and, above all, choose to be close to prisons in basque.
