To denounce the 31 years of imprisonment of two Basque prisoners in France, Jon Parot and Jakes Esnal, Several hundred Basque activists took part, this Saturday, in relays for some, in a march of 31 kilometers between Bayonne and Saint-Jean- de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).
Some 500 people took part in this march, according to the organizers, which is part of the peaceful fight that the Bake Bidea and Artisans de la Paix organizations have been waging for years, in favor of the release of the oldest Basque detainees, activists of the former separatist organization ETA.
“Judicial harassment”
Parot and Esnal had been arrested and imprisoned in 1990 and then sentenced in 1997 to life imprisonment, with an 18-year security period, alongside other members of an ETA commando group such as Frédéric “Xistor” Haramboure. The latter benefited on November 24, after 30 years of detention, from an “authorization for home detention under an electronic bracelet” and was able to return home to Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).
“After Xistor, we all hoped for faster hearings to study Jakes and Ion’s parole applications, but that’s the status quo,” said Anaiz Funosas, spokesperson for Bake Bidea. Parot filed a new application in August while Esnal appealed to cassation after the sentencing chamber rejected his request for parole in September. “They are 70 years old, they have spent 31 years in prison for acts committed on Spanish territory and if they had been imprisoned in Spain, they would be free at present,” protests Anaiz Funosas, who points to a “Judicial harassment”.
“We are playing with these men”
“The (French) government is making these two men a sticking point when it should be a tipping point. How to justify that Xistor is on parole and not the others? She asks herself. On the whole, the organizers of the march have the impression that “we are playing with these men”.
After leaving Bayonne, the parade crossed Anglet, Biarritz, Bidart, Guéthary to arrive in Saint-Jean-de-Luz where a speech in support of Basque prisoners took place in front of around 600 people, according to the organizers. About thirty former members of ETA, which announced its dissolution in 2018 after 60 years of existence, including four decades of armed struggle in France and Spain, are currently imprisoned in France.