The Collective of Victims of Terrorism from the Basque Country, Covite, has made public its protest over the granting of two new "fraudulent" third degrees to ETA prisoners Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi and Xabier Zabalo Beitia. At the same time, it has called for "the resignation" of the Basque Government's Minister of Justice and Human Rights, María Jesús San José.
In a statement released to the media, the president of Covite, Consuelo Ordóñez, has denounced that "the Basque Government is once again granting prison benefits to ETA prisoners without demanding real, public, verifiable repentance accompanied by objective facts of disassociation from the abertzale left." In her opinion, these two decisions represent "a new episode of the covert amnesty that the Basque regional executive has been applying to ETA prisoners."
The collective insists that "the Basque Government is using third degrees and Article 100.2 of the Penitentiary Regulations as instruments to accelerate the semi-freedom of ETA prisoners without demanding sincere repentance or a public, clear, and unequivocal break with the political and social framework that sustained, justified, and still today legitimizes ETA's terrorism." "What we are seeing is a deliberate policy of emptying prisons of ETA prisoners and doing so, moreover, following Sortu's instructions, without asking for true repentance and without respecting the victims' right to justice," Ordóñez stressed.
After attributing responsibility for this line of action to San José, who "must resign," the Covite leader considers the case of Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi "especially serious," a "member of ETA convicted of extremely serious crimes, including murders, attacks, destruction, injuries, possession of explosives, and membership in an armed group, with a sentence of 30 years in prison and a sentence end date set for 2036." She recalled that Olarra Guridi "was already enjoying, since July 2025, an Article 100.2, an exceptional route of prison flexibility that the Basque Government has effectively turned into a prelude to the third degree for ETA prisoners who do not meet the legal requirements to access the third degree."
Ordóñez emphasizes that this inmate "continues to be publicly claimed by the Abertzale left environment," where he is presented as "a reference by that environment." At the same time, he sees it as "significant" that the regional Executive is now granting a new third degree to Xabier Zabalo Beitia, "after he had already been granted it previously and that progression was revoked."
The president of Covite has specified that Zabalo "was sentenced to 25 years in prison for terrorist offenses, including damage, injuries, possession of weapons for terrorist purposes, and storage of explosives for terrorist purposes." "After the revocation of his previous third degree, Sare Sortu and the political environment of the Abertzale left promoted a demonstration in his town to protest that judicial decision," she added.
"Judicial Disauthorization" of Penitentiary Policy
Ordóñez places these two new decisions in "a context of growing judicial disauthorization of the Basque Government's penitentiary policy." In this regard, she recalled that, "in recent weeks, the Central Court of Penitentiary Surveillance has annulled the articles 100.2 granted to the etarras Soledad Iparraguirre, Anboto, and Juan Ramón Carasatorre Aldaz," through orders that, for Covite, "confirm that the Basque Executive is forcing penitentiary legality to facilitate semi-freedom regimes for ETA prisoners without truly meeting the legal requirements."
She also pointed out that, "in the case of Carasatorre, the judge even found that the mandatory specific treatment execution plan, an essential requirement to apply article 100.2, did not even exist." For Covite, "that was an extremely serious administrative action that showed the extent to which the Basque Government is willing to use exceptional means as shortcuts to semi-freedom." Furthermore, she highlighted that this same week "the Central Court of Penitentiary Surveillance dismissed the appeal filed by Carasatorre for the revocation of his 100.2, which meant another judicial blow to the Basque Government's penitentiary policy."
Ordóñez concludes by warning that "this policy is based on the fraud of private letters of supposed repentance" and emphasizes that "the recent rulings by Judge José Luis Castro have confirmed the instrumental nature of these writings, drafted in some cases immediately before the granting of prison privileges".