The Penitentiary Surveillance judge José Luis Castro has rejected the application of the semi-freedom regime to former ETA members Soledad Iparraguirre “Anboto” and Juan Ramón Carasatorre, which means their return to prison.
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The judge orders both to return to the second degree penitentiary regime and proposes a legal reform of the penitentiary system that currently allows early releases without a judge’s ruling. Anboto left prison a month ago.
For Judge Castro, the application without prior judicial control, which he describes as a “dysfunction,” benefits no one: “it creates false expectations for the inmate and unnecessary unease for the victims, and even for the public, who will find these release/incarceration decisions strange given the news in the media.” In Iparaguirre’s case, the prosecution opposed semi-freedom, as she had not served three-quarters of her sentence.
The former ETA leader was convicted of ten murders, possession of explosives, attacks, destruction, arson, possession of weapons, and crimes against the Crown, which have accumulated in a 30-year prison sentence. Three-quarters of the sentence would be served in March of next year and the full sentence in September 2034.
The magistrate cannot understand how her release has been approved, knowing that a judicial resolution is pending: “we are facing a reduction to the absurd, a kind of unsustainable squaring of the circle. Let’s see: an execution plan requires prior work by the members of the technical team, which is at least: inmate profiling, study of classification variables, programming of the content of the execution plan.”
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In his resolution, he explains that “common sense advises waiting, not only for the judicial decision of the instance, but for the resolution of the appeal, yes, with an agile administrative and judicial procedure and giving urgent and preferential character to the appeal filed.”
Proposes a “calm reflection” for legislative reform
The order indicates that from the legislator’s perspective, a calm reflection is required from which a possible legislative reform may derive. Castro recalls that in the application of art 100.2 of the penitentiary regulation – which allows for flexibility in the execution of the sentence – the technical team that proposes, the treatment board that adopts agreements, and the penitentiary judge who approves the execution program intervene.
However, in his view, the intervention of management centers “is increasingly frequent.” “What is not admissible is that these administrative bodies replace the specific jurisdictional functions of the treatment boards, since if this circumstance were to occur, the nullity of the decisions of the superior administrative body could be assessed.”
The judge’s order explains that although the center qualifies Iparraguirre as having had a positive evolution, the inmate has not enjoyed any leave granted “by the Court, which prevents evaluating her evolution, as contemplated by the Spanish penitentiary system, based on the principle of individualization and progressivity.”
The magistrate argues that the application of the principle of flexibility “requires reinforced justification, inasmuch as it requires a specific treatment program that otherwise cannot be executed.”
For the judge, it is also not explained why in the administrative decision “legal and treatment mechanisms typical of ordinary progression have been dispensed with, by not verifying the treatment trajectory through mechanisms such as the granting and evaluation of the permissive chain, which would allow obtaining a real conclusion about the inmate’s penitentiary evolution.”
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“Unilateral” decision by the management center
In the case of Carasatorre, who is also serving an accumulated 30-year prison sentence for crimes of murder, assault, and illegitimate use of a vehicle, the Surveillance judge recalls that the resolution of the Department of Justice and Human Rights of the Basque Government is not accompanied by an execution plan. It is, according to the judge, a “unilateral” decision by the prison director.
The magistrate argues that article 100.2 is an exceptional measure that leads to a semi-freedom regime and that “requires individualized justification of its relevance,” as a measure to make the degree more flexible. Therefore, its application must be sufficiently justified and its necessity in the reintegration process must be motivated.
This situation, according to the magistrate, may be due to the fact that the prison’s treatment board did not agree, after a proposal from the technical team, to apply 100.2, but rather it was a decision “that has been adopted unilaterally by the management center, without a prior proposal or agreement from the treatment board.”
It had unanimously proposed applying the second degree to the prisoner, based on the fact that he had not enjoyed any leave and on the short time spent in the penitentiary center.
To justify the unanimous proposal for the second degree, the board relied on the seriousness of the particularly violent criminal acts, the plurality of victims, three or more prison admissions, as well as the absence of permits that would allow assessing his adaptation and lack of professional qualification.
The judge indicates that Carasatorre served half of his sentence in March 2024 and that his definitive release will be in March 2034.
At the same time, he considers that if the management center considered the application of article 100.2 to be in accordance with the law in the absence of an agreement by the treatment board, it “should have urged it to elaborate the same, and it would be from that moment when, according to current legislation, the agreed plan would be executive.”
Six-day leave for Txeroki
In parallel, Castro has granted a six-day leave proposed on November 12 by the treatment board of San Sebastián prison to former ETA leader Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina “Txeroki”.
Aspiazu Rubina is currently under a semi-freedom regime that is pending review by the Penitentiary Surveillance judge. In an order and in line with what was stated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the magistrate considers that the granting of leave is appropriate given the advanced state of Aspiazu’s sentence, from which he will be definitively released in October next year.
