ETA members return home: ongi etorri

The purpose of the custodial sentence can be summed up in the rehabilitation of the prisoner, his or her social reintegration, despite the scales it may raise. However, the case of ETA terrorism was a turning point for certain aspects that legislation establishes as the rights of prisoners.

As it is the case with jihadist terrorism today, the dispersal of prisoners of this kind is a preventive measure, which helps them to re-socialise and abandon radical thinking. The fact that this phenomenon has spread not only nationally but also internationally, allows the systematic distribution of these individuals to different penitentiary centres or even modules, without breaching the precepts established in the penitentiary regulations.

However, ETA, as it was a foreign terrorism framed in a specific geographical area, produced an accumulation of ETA members in Basque prisons, generating an extremist group within the prisons, making rehabilitation and the elimination of violence impossible. For this reason, the then President of Spain (1989), Felipe González, with a view to avoiding contact and accumulation of Basque prisoners, made use of the provisions of Article 31 of the Penitentiary Regulations: "The management centre has exclusive competence to decide, ordinarily or extraordinarily, the classification and destination of prisoners in the different penitentiary establishments, without prejudice to the powers of the Surveillance Judges in matters of classification by way of appeal. It shall order the corresponding transfers on the basis of the proposals made for this purpose by the Treatment Boards"ⁱ.

In view of one of the main factors of re-socialisation, family closeness, it could be argued that the dispersal of ETA members could be considered illegal or ineffective from the point of view of re-socialisation, but it is true that in cases of terrorism, and especially in the case of national terrorism, isolation between individuals of the same ideology and even individuals from the same territorial area, prevents the radicalisation of other prisoners and favours the abandonment of the belief. 

However, it is important to bear in mind that this preventive measure can be a factor that can turn against it, becoming a further aggravation towards terrorism. It has been seen in Basque society in recent years that "injustice brings people together", reinforcing the saying " the Spanish state is once again against the Basques". As Fernando Reinares shows in his book "Patriotas de la muerte" (Death patriots), the concept of repentance is subjective and variable: Throughout ten interviews, it can be seen that none of them show signs of repentance, even though there are testimonies that say that they would not do it again or that they would not act in the same way nowadays. In addition, repentance has only been declared under legal imperative, as in the case of Txelis, as a reward for the victims or as reparation for social coexistenceⁱⁱ.  

At the height of the anti-ETA struggle, mass arrests were carried out in order to put an end to the phenomenon; the slightest suspicion or support for certain extremist Basque nationalist branches meant being targeted. This led to a prison collapse and therefore the adoption of such a measure by the government. Hundreds of ETA members were scattered in prisons all over Spain, including the islands and Andalusia.

This measure can be considered a failure, as it was 22 years later when the terrorist group ETA announced an end to its armed struggle, as well as making the re-socialisation and reparation of the dispersed prisoners even more difficult.

Now, the Spanish Government presided by Pedro Sánchez, together with Mikel Iceta, has signed the agreement on the transfer of prisons to the Basque Government of Urkullu. Thus, after their transfer in October, a plan of resocialisation and treatment with the victims will be carried outⁱⁱⁱ. 

In order for the plan to work, it will be necessary to achieve reintegration within the penitentiary centre itself and, secondly, treatment for their reintegration into society, ensuring that they abandon or distance themselves from their past ideology in favour of peace and against violence. 

Although the Basque conflict continues, it is true that as the effectiveness of the political route has been demonstrated, the use of violence is increasingly isolated, as well as being condemned and repudiated by a large pro-independence sector. Nevertheless, the harsh measures carried out in the fight against ETA, although they can be defended and justified by the seriousness of the situation, have led to disagreement with a large sector of the Basque people, strengthening their union against the Spanish state.

To this day, there are people who continue to consider the imprisonment of ETA members as an injustice, considering them political prisoners, without seeing the seriousness behind their actions or their words, falling into the real crimes of terrorism, which, as a reminder, constitute one of the most serious offences in our Penal Code.

Amanda Pérez Gómez

Criminologist and international terrorism analyst

References:

i Real Decreto 190/1996, de 9 de febrero, por el que se aprueba el . Real Decreto 190/1996, de 9 de febrero, por el que se aprueba el 1996.

ii Reinares, F. (2001). “Patriotas de la muerte”, págs. 134-171.

iii Segovia, M. (10 de Mayo de 2021). Euskadi asume hoy prisiones tras acabar el Gobierno con la dispersión de presos de ETA. El Independiente.