The Deputy Secretary for Institutional Regeneration of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, has demanded a modification of the prison regulations following "the releases of ETA members" which, in her opinion, respond to the "political pact" between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and Bildu.
The response of the 'popular' leader comes one day after it became known that ETA prisoner Ángel Tellería Uriarte has accessed a semi-freedom regime through the application of article 100.2 of the prison regulations, which allows softening the fulfillment of the sentence. In this way, he will be able to leave the Zaballa penitentiary center from Monday to Friday, although he must sleep in prison.
Last Wednesday, during the Plenary Session of Congress, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, already lashed out at the Executive for its prison policy and for the granting of semi-freedom to the former ETA leader Soledad Iparraguirre, alias 'Anboto', sentenced to "more than 600 years for more than a dozen crimes". "That was 'Anboto' this week, to celebrate the war, I suppose. Then, in February, Txeroki's thing. In April, will it be Txapote, Your Honor?" he asked Sánchez.
"Example of political and moral corruption", according to Gamarra
After Tellería's situation became known, Gamarra has described the decision as a "new concession to Bildu by 'sanchismo'". "Another ETA member leaves prison by decision of the Basque Government. We demand the change of the Prison Regulations", he stated, emphasizing that "the releases of ETA members cannot occur based on Sánchez's personal interest".
In statements to Europa Press, he/she has stressed that "this is part of the political pact" between Sánchez and Bildu and that it constitutes, in his/her opinion, the "greatest example of political and moral corruption of sanchismo" because "he/she has converted penitentiary policy into an instrument at his/her service to strengthen agreements and be able to fulfill commitments".
Gamarra has recalled that in the previous legislature a "policy of rapprochement" of ETA prisoners was promoted and that "the second milestone was the transfer of competence in penitentiary matters to the Basque Government". In that framework, he added, third degrees and other penitentiary benefits are being authorized.
"What we defend is that without repentance and without collaborating with justice, they cannot avail themselves of beneficiary benefits in such an arbitrary way," the PP leader has maintained, also emphasizing that "400 unsolved ETA murders" remain pending clarification.
After insisting that they are "convicted terrorists with a significant number of years," Gamarra has reiterated that these decisions reveal the "use of penitentiary policy as an instrument for political corruption." "It is for one's own political benefit, not the country's," she has emphasized.
PP's initiative in Congress to toughen the law
The PP has already registered in Congress a non-legislative proposal with which it intends that the Government promotes a legal reform aimed at guaranteeing that those sentenced to permanent revisable prison cannot access any type of penitentiary benefit.
The 'populars' promoted this initiative after the application to the ETA member Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known as 'Txeroki', of article 100.2 of the prison regulations, which makes it possible to make the execution of the sentence more flexible by combining the second degree with features of the third, that is, a semi-freedom regime.
For the PP, it is "unacceptable" that this interpretation of the prison regulations "circumvents", through the form of execution of the sentence, the rule of effective compliance with the sentences set by the courts.
Although it underlines that these ETA members were not sentenced to permanent revisable prison —a penal figure introduced in 2015—, this situation has led the party to demand changes in penitentiary legislation regarding access to benefits for those who serve this sentence.
Therefore, the PP takes advantage of this proposition —in which it urges the Government to promote a reform of the General Penitentiary Organic Law to include a "specific and differentiated" regulation of permanent revisable imprisonment— to also propose a legal change that prevents those convicted of terrorism from being able to avail themselves of a model of sentence execution that mixes elements typical of the second and third degrees.