The National Court sends Joseba Arregi, 77, back to prison

The former leader of the disappeared ETA Joseba Arregi, 77, was detained in Martutene prison on Tuesday after the public prosecutor’s office appealed for the second time against the third degree granted to him by the Basque government.

This is reported by the Association of Relatives of Prisoners etxeratArregi passed the third degree last week, the prosecution appealed and the Central Court of Penitentiary Surveillance of the National Court has accepted the appeal for consideration, meaning that it will be suspended until resolved.

This is the second time that this prisoner has obtained the third degree of imprisonment, after being granted it by the Basque government in February 2022 on the recommendation of the Martutene Prison Treatment Board (Donostia-San Sebastián).

In November, the Central Court of Penitentiary Supervision upheld and withdrew the prosecutor’s appeal, leaving Arregi back in prison until the CAV executive granted it again last week.

Etxerat explains in his statement that a month ago there are two other prisoners Xabier Atristain and Juan Manuel Inziarte They returned to prison after the prosecution’s appeal, in line with a new Supreme Court doctrine that once the appeal is allowed for consideration, the third degree will be suspended.

31 years in prison

This association has spoken out “outrage” for Arregi’s imprisonment, which he considers a “repeated violation of the rights of a 77-year-old person, 31 of whom have served time in prison”.

Makes Arregi suffer “multipathologies derived from age” and that by June 2019 he had served three quarters of his sentence, not counting the 10 years he was imprisoned in France.