Frenchman Henri Parot, author of particularly deadly attacks for the Basque separatist organization ETA, will be transferred to a prison in the Basque Country (north), the Spanish prison administration announced on Wednesday August 31.
This decision falls within the framework of the policy of bringing together ex-members of ETA imprisoned implemented by the left-wing government of Pedro Sanchez and demanded for a long time by their relatives.
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In prison for 32 years, Henri "
Unai
" Parot was sentenced in 1990 for a total of 39 murders.
In particular, he was one of the perpetrators of the attack in 1987 against the barracks of the Civil Guard in Zaragoza, which killed 11 people, including 5 children.
Member of a commando active from 1978 to 1990 made up of French people recruited by ETA because they were not known to the police, he was arrested in 1990 near Seville (south) at the wheel of a car loaded with more 300 kg of explosives.
Initially imprisoned in Cadiz nearly 1,000 km from the Basque Country, he had already been transferred last year to Léon, closer to this region.
He is theoretically released in 2029.
Like Henri Parot, the former military chief of ETA, Xavier García Gaztelu, known as "
Txapote
" - condemned for a dozen assassinations including that in 1997 of the municipal councilor of the Popular Party (PP, right) Miguel Angel Blanco, who had caused indignation in Spain - and eleven other ex-etarras will also benefit from this measure.
The Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) described these transfers as “
treason
” on the part of Pedro Sanchez and “
a new blow
” for the victims of ETA.
Read alsoPrisoners, autonomy ... the awakening of Basque demands
“
Serial killers like Henri Parot or Txapote will serve the rest of their sentence in prisons close to their families
”, she regretted, assuring that they had never “
expressed the slightest repentance nor have ever collaborated with the judiciary
.
"
The humiliation of the victims (of ETA) by the government is unbearable
", reacted for her part the number two of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, who sees in these rapprochements a counterpart to the support provided by the Basque separatist party EH Bildu , heir to the political showcase of ETA, to the minority government of Pedro Sanchez.
Since its accession to power in 2018, a few weeks after the self-dissolution of ETA, several dozen detainees imprisoned very far from the Basque Country have been transferred to prisons in this region or in neighboring provinces.
These transfers marked the gradual end of the dispersal policy applied to prevent links between the etarras and their entourage.
In the past, the conservative government of José Maria Aznar (1996-2004) had also already brought together prisoners while negotiating with ETA.
After these 13 new transfers, 45 ex-etarras will still be imprisoned outside the Basque Country or Navarre, according to the AVT.