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Consequences of the Penitentiary Policy: “Three Cases that Sum up Penitentiary Cruelty”

16.8.2012 | Ramón SOLA (GARA, 14.8.2012, in Spanish language)

Iosu Uribetxeberria hospitalized in a terminal state, on hunger strike and being harassed; Mikel Egibar, unable to hug his wife and two kids seriously injured in two hospitals; Iñigo Erro, also ill and with the “Parot Doctrine” applied to him and on Friday sent to Almeria without even waiting for his mother to die. Three cases in one week, three vertices of a triangle of extreme and gratuitous cruelty.

When ten months have passed since the end of the armed struggle by ETA and the political and social distension is evident, the prisons continue to be islets of violence with the addition of a completely unnecessary cruelty. Last week brought three different cases that situate themselves among the worst of these past years. The triangle sums up all the criminal potential of this penitentiary policy: playing with health, distances and communication… And it shows that no one among the Basque political prisoners is safe: 67 years separate the youngest daughter of Mikel Egibar and Pilar Zasu, the mother of Iñaki Erro.

Historically the solidarity collectives with Basque political prisoners have been reluctant to tell their stories in first person, precisely because they consider that the penitentiary policy doesn’t make any distinctions and that everyone is affected. But these three recent cases are impossible to hide or minimize. And they are cases that should question not only those politically responsible for dispersion, but also other social entities, institutions for the protection of children or professional medical associations, for example.

Uribetxeberria, with nothing to lose

The situation of the terminally ill Iosu Uribetxeberria transcended this past July 27th. Obviously the first to know that was precisely the Penitentiary Institutions, through the prison in Leon. The government of the PP made this clear that they assumed this situation when the transferred Uribetxeberria to Donostia arguing that he should be attended by the doctors who took charge of his case when he came down with cancer in 2005. His defense immediately asked for his release through all possible means. But 18 days have passed and he is still a prisoner, without their being any motive for the delay from the Courts.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was with the gratuitous cruelty. Between tears, his brother Jabi said how this Sunday three members of the Basque Autonomous Police (Ertzaintza) entertained themselves with commentaries about how little they cared if Iosu died while they opened and closed the blinds. Jabi Uribetxeberria recovered his strength to mention something obvious: that in his terminal circumstances, the prisoner has nothing to lose (“‘They can’t hurt me anymore’ he told us”) and the only thing he wants is for no other ill prisoner who reaches this situation to have to go through all of this.

Erro, sent farther away while his mother died

Iñaki Erro suffered a heart attack in January, but not only was he not released, he was sent to the most remote place on the map: Almeria. They only brought him to Pamplona last week to say good-bye to his mother. But the most telling thing happened on Friday, despite three parliamentary groups from Navarre having demanded that they leave him there and despite knowing that Pilar Zasu was on her deathbed, The Penitentiary Institutions decided to send him away to Almeria as soon as possible, in a lot of haste and without reason.

The death occurred while he was being sent away, for which the prisoner was brought back again to Pamplona on a trip that he will now never forget. Early Saturday morning he was allowed to visit the cemetery. In truth, Erro should have spent the last months with his mother at home for two reasons: he is seriously ill and he completed his sentence in 2011. And Pilar Zasu should never have spent the last quarter of a century making all these trips: Carabanchel, Alcala, Herrera, Tenerife, Puerto, Valdemoro, Algeciras, Ocaña and Almeria. Only once, and for a short time, did she have her son Iñaki close to her, in Logroño.

Egibar, not even a hug from his family

It’s shocking to see the state in which the car of the family of Mikel Egibar was left in. And you don’t have to imagine what the prisoner from Donostia is going through, with his wife and 14 year-old and 12 year-old sons admitted in two hospitals in Zaragoza. The doctors affirmed that the three will have to be operated on and that his wife, Mila, will be in serious condition for a long time, so the family’s situation is very complicated. In these circumstances, Etxerat denounced this Sunday that Egibar is only allowed to visit each one for only 10 minutes and without even being allowed to hug them, with his hands cuffed behind his back and police inside the rooms. None of this would have happened if Egibar hadn’t been sentenced to nine and a half years in prison in a political trial like 18/98. Neither would he have been in Martutene.


Foto:
The car of the Egibar family after the accident in Zaragoza


Original (in Spanish language):

GARA vom 14.8.2012

English translation by basquepeaceprocess.info:

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