SORTU evaluates positively the sentence made public on October 21st, 2013, by the European Court of Human Rights which confirms that the prisoners who have had the 197/2006 Doctrine applied to them which irregularly lengthened their prison terms must be set free without delay. As a consequence of this decision two prisoners have already been released and the sentence must bring about the release of over fifty prisoners.

The 197/2006 Doctrine responds to the objective manifested by diverse Spanish governments to avoid that Basque political prisoners recover their freedom even after having completed their sentences. For that, the Spanish courts have made use of "constructing accusations" and "legal engineering".

The 197/2006 Doctrine that the ECHR has annulled has been applied to 70 Basque political prisoners who have already completed more than 200 years in prison on top of what they were sentenced to. Every day that passes without their being released adds a new fracture to their most fundamental rights and is a jibe by the Spanish state to the Court at Strasbourg.

SORTU considers that this sentence, apart from correcting, even though belatedly, a painful and unjust measure, must be understood as an opportunity for the Spanish state to stamp a clear change in their penitentiary policy to take advantage of the opportunity now opened, two years ago now, with the Declaration of Aiete and the decision by ETA to put an end to their armed activity, to advance towards the definitive resolution of the political conflict in the Basque Country.

However, this hasn't been the attitude of the PP, the governing party, and even less of the sectors of the extreme right that clamour for revenge while facing an opportunity to stabilise a just and lasting peace.

SORTU receives with worry the angry reaction of the Spanish government and the PP that doesn't conform with criticizing the sentence and that tries to delegitimize the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

This reaction of the most reactionary sectors of the state definitively spilled over into the demonstration called for on October 27th in Madrid with the support of some associations of victims with the slogan "For a Justice with Victors and Vanquished".

In this demonstration that the PP joined and to which various political and institutional representatives of this formation appeared, directly advocated for not complying with the sentence of the ECHR, they accused the previous president of the government of being a traitor, as well as numerous politicians, and they even spread proclamations in favour of the death penalty.

SORTU wants to alert international public opinion of an extremely serious act such as that in this demonstration they exhibited flags and other symbols of the Franco dictatorship and that numerous participants, as you can confirm in the photos published in the media, made fascist salutes. This attitude is completely unacceptable and must be a reason for worry, because it is not an isolated episode in Spain, and for how it affects Europe, because it takes place at a moment when the extreme right is showing itself more emboldened and aggressive than ever all over the continent.

SORTU wants to express their deep worry concerning these acts, which do nothing but reaffirm us in our conviction in that you can't build a just and lasting peace from a scheme of "victors and vanquished" or from the desire for revenge. On the contrary, the peace that the Basque people long for must contemplate the recognition of the pain suffered by all the victims, and has as a fundamental ingredient the respect for the human rights of everyone. On this path, the sentence from Strasbourg is an opportunity to modify the penitentiary policy that the decision of the European Court of Human Rights has called into question, and definitely for the Spanish government to give an opportunity for peace.

The men and women who make up SORTU will continue working to achieve this scenario of peace that Basque society longs for. A peace based on justice and not on revenge and rancour, a peace in which we are all victors.

From this commitment, we call on the Spanish government to put aside their most reactionary visions and to set out on the path for building a scenario of peace.