[Ppnews] Basque separatist freed from prison after 21 years

[Political Prisoner News]

Liberan a etarra en España tras 21 años de prisión
Por DANIEL WOOLS | Saturday, August 02, 2008 3:22:29 PM | AP
http://www2.impre.com/Article.aspx?articlepath=APNews\Top-Headlines_es\20080802\EUR-GEN-ESPANA-ETA.xml&cat=topheadlines_es&subcat=&pageid=1

Un miembro destacado del grupo separatista vasco 
ETA condenado por la muerte de 25 personas, entre 
ellas una docena de policías en un atentado con 
automóvil bomba, quedó en libertad el sábado luego de 21 años en prisión.

La televisión española presentó imágenes de José 
Ignacio de Juana Chaos saliendo de una cárcel en 
las afueras de Madrid junto con su esposa y dos abogados.

El cuarteto subió luego a un vehículo negro de 
tracción en las cuatro ruedas y se piensa que va 
camino a la ciudad portuaria vasca de San 
Sebastián, donde el matrimonio compró un 
departamento, en un barrio donde viven muchos familiares de víctimas de ETA.

De  Juana Chaos fue liberado al marcarse el 40 
aniversario del primer asesinato de ETA, el de un policía en San Sebastián.

El ex recluso pertenecía a uno de los comandos 
más activos de la ETA y nunca expresó 
remordimiento alguno por su papel en docenas de muertes.

Luego de la muerte de un concejal de Sevilla y de 
su esposa, en 1998, escribió en una carta desde 
la cárcel que "sus lágrimas son nuestras 
sonrisas, y al final nos reiremos a carcajadas", 
según la red radial Cadena Ser.

En una pequeña demostración el sábado en San 
Sebastián, varias decenas de manifestantantes 
criticaron la liberación de Juana Chaos.

"Al liberar a un asesino como Juana Chaos, el 
gobierno nos ha dejado huérfanos", dijo Ruben 
Mugica. Su padre, Fernando, un prominente 
político socialista, fue asesinado a balazos por 
un pistolero de la ETA en 1996.

En Madrid, unas 150 personas se congregaron para 
recordar a las víctimas de la ETA y para 
protestar por la liberación de Juana Chaos.

Los manifestantes exigieron la cadena perpetua 
para los militantes de la ETA y criticaron al 
gobierno por ser "blando" con el grupo armado.

ETA, con un largo historial de atentados, tiene 
el objetivo de lograr un estado independiente 
vasco en el norte de España y el oeste de Francia 
desde 1968. La banda está acusada de matar a más de 825 personas.

La más reciente muerte fue la de un policía en la 
población vasca de Legutiano, en mayo.

De Juana Chaos fue detenido en 1987 y condenado 
dos años después por la muerte de 25 personas a 
un total de 3.000 años de prisión.

Conforme el código penal vigente entonces, la 
pena más larga que podía cumplir era de 30 años. 
Logró reducir su condena estudiando en prisión y 
mediante otras concesiones, siendo programada su liberación en el 2006.

Sin embargo, una corte lo condenó a otros tres 
años, debido a una serie de cartas consideradas como amenazas terroristas.
------
El periodista de The Associated Press Alberto 
Letona colaboró con este informe desde San Sebastián.
******************************************************************************
Basque separatist freed from prison after 21 years
By DANIEL WOOLLS –
August 2, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQNmaQ6sOWHZFsQvKepa-8gYnZkgD92A4JPG0

MADRID, Spain (AP) ­ A notorious and unrepentant 
Basque separatist convicted of killing 25 people 
­ including a dozen policemen in a Madrid car 
bombing ­ walked out of a Spanish prison a free 
man Saturday after spending 21 years behind bars.

Spanish television broadcast footage of Jose 
Ignacio de Juana Chaos leaving a prison in 
Aranjuez, a town outside Madrid, accompanied by his wife and two lawyers.

They all got into a black car and were believed 
to be headed to the Basque seaside city of San 
Sebastian, where de Juana Chaos and his wife have 
bought an apartment in a neighborhood that also 
is home to relatives of people killed by the Basque separatist group ETA.

De Juana Chaos was released on the 40th 
anniversary of ETA's first killing ­ a policeman 
in San Sebastian ­ and victims groups in Madrid 
and elsewhere honored the memory of the hundreds killed in ETA attacks.

The group, which has waged a violent campaign for 
an independent Basque state in northern Spain and 
southwest France since 1968, is blamed for the 
deaths of more than 825 people. The last was the 
May killing of a policeman in the Basque village of Legutiano.

De Juana Chaos had belonged to one of ETA's most 
active commando units and has never expressed 
remorse for his role in dozens of deaths.

After the killing of a Seville town councilor and 
his wife in 1998, he wrote in a letter from jail 
that "their tears are our smiles, and in the end 
we will roar with laughter," according to Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.

At a small rally Saturday in San Sebastian, 
several dozen protesters denounced his release from prison.

"By freeing a murderer like de Juana Chaos, the 
government has turned us into orphans," said 
Ruben Mugica. His father, Fernando, a prominent 
lawyer and Socialist politician, was shot dead by an ETA gunman in 1996.

Sonsoles Arroyo, president of an anti-ETA civic 
group called Dignity and Justice, said: "We are 
here to tell the murderers we are going to fight 
to end the impunity they enjoy."

In Madrid, some 150 people gathered to remember 
ETA victims and to protest de Juana Chaos' release.

They demanded life imprisonment for ETA militants 
and criticized the government as soft on the 
armed group classified as terrorists by Spain, 
the European Union and the United States.

De Juana Chaos, 52, was arrested in 1987 and 
convicted two years later of killing 25 people in 
a string of ETA attacks that included some of the 
group's most prominent slayings. Before becoming 
an ETA hit man, he had served as a policeman.

He was sentenced to some 3,000 years in prison 
for a total of 11 attacks, including the Madrid 
car bombing that killed 12 Civil Guard policemen in 1986.

But under the penal code in force then, the most 
time he could serve was 30 years.

He earned time off by studying in jail and 
through other concessions, and had been due to be 
released in 2006. But a court then sentenced him 
to 12 more years after he wrote a newspaper 
article deemed to be a terrorist threat.

In February 2007, the Supreme Court reduced this 
conviction to three years. De Juana Chaos had 
already launched a hunger strike to demand his 
release, and as he neared death, Spain's 
Socialist government transferred him to a 
hospital and later placed him under house arrest.

This infuriated opposition conservatives and 
prompted a massive protest rally in Madrid. The 
government had been engaged in peace talks with 
ETA, and the conservatives accused Prime Minister 
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of going light on de 
Juana Chaos as a gesture to ETA.

The government sent de Juana Chaos back to jail 
in June 2007, a day after ETA announced that a 
cease-fire it had called in March 2006 was officially over.

Associated Press writer Alberto Letona 
contributed to this report from San Sebastian.




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