The Basque Government has granted ETA member Ibon Fernández Iradi, known as Susper, the third degree of penitentiary or semi-liberty. Susper was the former leader of the armed group and was arrested in 2002 with a large amount of internal documentation from the terrorist organization, known as the Susper papers, which led to the arrest of nearly 70 members of ETA. Fernández Iradi, who is 52 years old and suffers from a serious illness, is the second former ETA member to be granted this penitentiary benefit in April, after Iratxe Yáñez Ortiz also received it. A total of 71 former ETA members have now been granted semi-liberty since the Basque authorities took over the management of the three prisons in the region on October 1, 2021.
The Police attribute to Susper a long history of attacks, including several murders, during his time with the Buruntza command of ETA between 2000 and August 2001. He then joined the leadership of ETA to replace Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi and Ainhoa Mujika Goñi, who had been arrested a few months earlier. In December 2002, he was arrested in southern France, but three days later he escaped from a police station in Bayonne through a vent in his cell. Despite his escape, the police were able to seize boxes of documents that belonged to previous ETA leaders and were in Susper’s possession in a location in France. The documents contained information about dozens of people who had been contacted by the organization, leading to the arrest of 70 new alleged recruits of the group.
After being detained in France for several years, Fernández Iradi was transferred to a prison in Spain in October 2022. He has now been granted semi-liberty due to health reasons and as part of the Basque Government’s penitentiary policy, which aims to have at least 40% of inmates (50% in the case of women) serve their sentences in open regime. As of March, there were 467 inmates in open regime out of the 1,383 prisoners in Basque prisons, representing nearly 34%. Some victims of terrorism associations are concerned about this measure being applied to ETA prisoners, and the PP and Vox have accused the Basque Government of tailoring the penitentiary system to ETA. However, the government of Vitoria has denied these accusations.
Despite being granted semi-liberty, Susper still has to meet certain conditions and requirements before being eligible for parole. The move to grant him this benefit is part of a broader effort by the Basque Government to reform the penitentiary system and promote the reintegration of prisoners into society. The decisions regarding the penitentiary benefits for former ETA members have been met with mixed reactions, with some seeing it as a step towards reconciliation and others expressing concern about the potential impact on victims and their families. The process of granting semi-liberty to ETA prisoners is part of a larger debate about memory, justice, and reconciliation in the Basque Country.
