The Government sends to the Public Prosecutor's Office reports on the march in support of the ETA prisoners advertised under the name of Parot

The ETA member Henri Parot is taken to a room of the National Court where he was tried in 2017.Ballesteros (EFE)

Sare, a group that supports ETA prisoners, does not give up and, for the moment, maintains the act in favor of the inmates of the terrorist gang organized on December 31 in Mondragón (Gipuzkoa) and which has been publicized with the name of the bloodthirsty Henri Parot, convicted of 39 murders. The Delegation of the Government of the Basque Country has sent the call to the Prosecutor of the Superior Court of Justice of the community in case it appreciates evidence of crimes, as it did last September when Sare promoted a human chain of 31 kilometers for the 31 years that Parot has been imprisoned, which ended up being called off after pressure from institutions and victims' associations. The National Court also has to pronounce itself after receiving the request that Mondragon's march be banned.

On the poster, Sare included the names of Parot and two other members of the band: José Manuel Pagoaga Gallastegi; and Eugenio Barrutiabengoa, a fugitive from justice in Venezuela. But, after the public denunciation of the victims' associations, the group eliminated that reference and argued that it is only a protest rally for the "exceptional penitentiary policy that is applied" to ETA prisoners. All the parties, except the nationalist left

have criticized the call and demanded a deeper ethical reflection from Sortu and EH Bildu. The letter from the Government Delegation sent to the Prosecutor's Office incorporates police reports.

However, the victims go further and denounce that this act - like another convened on December 31 in Pamplona in support of the organization's inmates as well - aims to enhance the figure of ETA members like Parot. For this reason, the Association for the Support of Victims (APAVT) and Dignity and Justice on Tuesday asked the National Court to prohibit them, as they constitute alleged crimes of "exalting terrorism and humiliating the victims." “The objective [of these demonstrations] is none other than to praise those who have been convicted for belonging to or collaborating with ETA, or for carrying out terrorist actions that have caused a large number of murdered and injured throughout the bloody criminal history of the band ”, explains the APAVT

The government delegate, Denis Itxaso, issued a statement on Wednesday to join the "majority sentiment of Basque society, of the victims of terrorism and of different political parties." The representative of the Executive has asked Sare to "show sensitivity and empathy, and not contribute to causing unnecessary and unfair pain to those who, at the time, already suffered the terrible injustice of ETA terrorism." In this sense, Itxaso recalled that social pressure has already caused the group to call off the September march in favor of Parot and has shown its amazement at Sare's attitude, which now leads him to "make the same mistake again."

"Any attempt to idealize the past of ETA or to place those responsible as victims will have the resounding rejection of society and its representatives", emphasizes the Government delegate, who regrets this call in Mondragón: "Precisely now, that the

left

has made a public commitment not to reopen wounds with public events, such calls persist ”. Last November, the ETA prisoner group (EPPK, in its Basque acronym) demanded the end of the

, the public tributes they receive when they are released.

The Prosecutor's Office of the National High Court and this judicial body must now rule on Mondragón's march after receiving the request from the victims to ban it. At the moment, the Public Ministry has already reported on the mobilization of Pamplona and, according to legal sources, in this case it does not appreciate minimal evidence of crime. The Prosecutor's Office thus maintains the line set by the Supreme Court and the National Court itself, which refuse to preventively limit the fundamental right to demonstrate, protected by freedom of expression. Of course, the public prosecution requests that the Security Forces "adopt surveillance measures to verify" whether, during the development of the concentrations, "hate crimes, glorification or humiliation of the victims" are committed.

The debate on the ethical evolution of the

left

has not finished closing this December. Sortu has proposed to include David Pla, the last head of ETA, in its leadership to take charge of the Strategic Orientation area. About thirty people received the terrorist Mikel Albisu, alias

, when he came to testify to the San Sebastián courts for his alleged involvement in the 1995 murder of the deputy mayor of the San Sebastián City Council, Gregorio Ordóñez —Sortu also released a statement to show his support.

And on December 18, the secretary general of Sortu (a party integrated in EH Bildu), Arkaitz Rodríguez, said in public that the death from illness of another ETA member, Antton Troitiño, sentenced to 2,700 years in prison for 22 murders, represented "a day of mourning for the left -

. "

Parot's bloody record

Parot was born in Algeria in 1958, when this country was still a French colony and a year before ETA was born.

The son of Basque-French parents, in adolescence he moved to Baiona, the most important city in the French Basque Country, and already in full Transition, he began to approach the world of ETA.

In 1978, the terrorist gang murdered 64 people and Parot committed his first fatal attack, against businessman José Luis Legasa.

In total, he has been convicted of 39 murders and has left more than 200 injured.