The Ministry of the Interior keeps 90 of the 197 ETA prisoners (45.7%) classified in the first prison degree, the hardest and that prevents them, for example, from requesting permits, according to data from the fight against terrorism.
The percentage is significantly lower than that of February 2018, shortly before ETA announced its dissolution.
So, of the 245 inmates of the gang, 209 were in this closed regime, 88%.
The current percentage is still far from that of common prisoners, less than 2%.
For years, prison policy in the fight against ETA has always been based on two elements.
On the one hand, the dispersal of its inmates through prisons throughout the Spanish territory, launched in 1989 by the socialist government of Felipe González.
On the other, the prison classification of the gang's inmates, which determines both the life regime to which they are subjected and the possibility of accessing or not certain prison benefits such as permits, semi-release and even aspiring to conditional release .
After the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to the Government, in 2018, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has made both more flexible, although at different speeds.
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Thus, in the last two and a half years, Interior has undertaken the transfer to prisons closer to the Basque Country and Navarra of 153 ETA prisoners.
The last five, this Friday.
An important part, in addition, after the summer, once the state of alarm that prevented the movement of inmates between prisons for months was ended to minimize the risk of expansion of the coronavirus within prisons.
In addition, of the ETA members approached, 116 have gone to occupy cells in prisons in these two communities or in neighboring provinces or close to both, according to police sources.
This policy of rapprochement has been more pronounced in France, the other country where there are still ETA prisoners.
The arrival to the presidency of Emmanuel Macron translated, at the beginning of 2018, into the beginning of a progressive transfer of these inmates to prisons near the border with Spain.
Of the 29 terrorists currently imprisoned in France, one, former ETA leader José Antonio Urrutikoetxea,
Josu Ternera,
is in semi-release in Paris waiting for the French justice to judge him and decide on his delivery to Spain.
Another 21 are in the Lannemezan and Mont-de-Marsan prisons, the closest to Spain.
This figure would be even higher if these prisons had a women's module.
Its non-existence keeps the six ETA members imprisoned there away.
With article 100.2
There have also been significant changes in the prison classification of prisoners.
In fact, a large part of recent prisoner transfers have been accompanied by what is known as grade progression.
That is to say, the passage from an inmate to a regime of life in prison that is lighter than that which governed his day-to-day life up to that moment.
Sometimes with intermediate steps.
Thus, of the 90 ETA members who until yesterday remained in first degree prison, 39 have begun to apply article 100.2 of the Penitentiary Regulations, which allows them to enjoy some of the prison benefits of a better prison classification, according to the data run by Sare, a citizen platform to support Basque prisoners that in recent years has called demonstrations in the Basque Country to demand their approach to prisons close to the Basque autonomous community.
In addition, there are 96 ETA prisoners (48.7% of the total) in second degree penitentiary or ordinary regime.
Among them, the five inmates whose next transfer was announced this Friday.
In the last two years, all of them have submitted writings in which they abide by the law in order to improve their situation in prison.
Being in second degree means, among other benefits, that once they have served a quarter of the sentence, they can request permits, up to 24 days a year.
However, the granting of these exits depends on the Interior and, ultimately, on the Judge of Penitentiary Surveillance of the National Court, José Luis de Castro.
The current percentage of ETA prisoners in the second degree is four times higher than in February 2018, three months before the dissolution of ETA.
At that time, only 11.8% (29 inmates) of the band's 245 inmates had been progressed to the ordinary regime.
In the case of common prisoners, this percentage rises to around 75%, according to prison statistics.
In addition, since Grande-Marlaska has been in charge of the Interior, 17 ETA prisoners have accessed the third degree penitentiary or open regime - also known as semi-freedom.
Six of them have already been released after serving their sentences and the remaining 11 (5.6% of the group) are still in this prison regime.
Some have been fitted with a telematics control bracelet, which allows them to finish serving their sentences at home without having to go to prison.
In the case of third degrees, the difference with inmates sentenced for crimes not related to terrorism is also high: just over 18% of the 46,000 inmates are already semi-released, in an upward trend.
The coronavirus and the future slowdown of releases
The number of 197 ETA prisoners is the lowest in four decades and will fall in the next three years by approximately fifty, according to the coinciding estimates of the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) and the Sare platform to support The prisoners.
After those years, both associations predict a slowdown in the releases, since a good part of the ETA members who will then continue in prison were tried after the reform of the Criminal Code of 2003 that increased the effective fulfillment of the sentences to 40 years.
For this reason, the group of ETA prisoners (EPPK in its acronym in Basque) has communicated to parties, unions and associations in the Basque Country and Navarre the need to demand that the Government eliminate this point from the law.
It also demands the release of the seriously ill (a fortnight) and of those over 65 (a similar figure) due to the coronavirus crisis, as well as that the more than 60 ETA members who have already served three-quarters of their sentence have access to parole.
