Angel Figueroa, a seriously-ill Basque political prisoner paroled after a long campaign died on March 14th in his home in Algorta, Basque municipality of Getxo, near Bilbao, at the age of 41. He had not been permitted to leave there since he had been paroled in 2007.

Algorta was where my mother was born and where she was brought up as a child until the Spanish Civil War.

Angel Figueroa's mother, when she was campaigning for him to be released under Article 92 of the Spanish penal code (release on parole due to serious illness) gave an interview in 1997 and years later to GARA (bilingual Basque/ Spanish left-wing daily newspaper) (translation mine):

"If my son were not a Basque political prisoner, he would be walking free."
Despite being seriously ill, Angel Figueroa has been denied the application of Article 92. His mother, Mari Carmen Fernandez, is clear that the refusal was because he is a Basque political prisoner, a group which is the object of the Spanish Government’s 'merciless revenge.’
“Angel Figueroa is one of twelve Basque political prisoners who are seriously ill. In recent times, different agencies have warned about his alarming situation and demanded his immediate release. His stay in prison has led to a significant deterioration in his health.

“Figueroa will turn 36 in December. He has been in jail since 1994. Prior to being arrested, he was diagnosed with a bad fever, which resulted in epileptic seizures that took place in a regular manner. However, says his mother , Mari Carmen Fernandez in another interview, until 2005, when he suffered an attack in the of the Córdoba prison courtyard which was witnessed by his comradess, ‘we had no clear understanding of what he had. Before he entered the prison we observed small absences, a loss of awareness for a few seconds. Since then the crises are becoming longer and more frequent; it has gone from a loss of awareness to unconsciousness.’

“In 2006 he underwent surgery. In just over a year, instead of improving, he suffered more than 20 seizures with loss of consciousness, along with the impacts entailed in falling unconscious to the ground. His lawyers sought parole according to Article 92 which, however, was denied by the Spanish National Court in late July. The crises he is facing are unremitting, repeated with greater frequency and intensity. The medication has also been increased. At the most recent examination in the Hospital de Cruces, he was diagnosed as suffering from an incurable epilepsy.

“ ‘There are laws, not justice.’ ”
“Fernandez said that the prison situation is most dire for people suffering from any disease and even more so for Angel. The treatment recommended by the doctors to avoid suffering the attacks is that he needs to maintain a peaceful and relaxed state, without sleep loss and with proper medication, none of which conditions are met by life in prison. To make matters worse, a week after his last hospital admission, he had been moved to Cordoba, provoking further attacks.

“For Figueroa's mother, the refusal is a reflection of the policy of ‘cruelty and revenge’ that the Spanish government has against the Basque Political Prisoners Collective. There are, in her opinion, ‘double standards.’ She says that ‘if Angel were not a Basque political prisoner, he would be walking free.’ She recalled the case of former General Rodríguez Galindo, convicted of the kidnapping and deaths of Joxean Lasa and Zabala Joxi, who was released after claiming health problems. Meanwhile, her son is still in prison. ‘There are laws, not justice,’ she criticized.

“Within that (penitentiary) policy the dispersal also figured and Fernandez demands its immediate ending. ‘They devised it for detainees so that they would not have a strong collective and would begin repenting, but they have not succeeded. They thought that by them not being together, they would disintegrate. However, the truth is that it is us, the families, who are being affected.’

“Fernandez knows about the danger of having to travel hundreds of miles from home for visits. In 1997 she suffered a car accident on her way to visit her son of which her mother died.

“‘They have to be clear that these people have gone to jail with certain ideas which are consistent with what they think. They will not change, let them bring them where they may. By ricochet, they are hurting the families, who have committed no crime,’ she complained. She stressed that even during the last bargaining process (‘peace talks’), they had noticed no improvement in his situation.

"Relatives have gone to different institutions to publicize his case, as to the Lakua Commission on Human Rights, but the ‘nice words’ they have been given have not translated into action.

"Despite everything, she said she would continue fighting and hopes that community initiative which has been formed in Getxo to demand the release of Angel Figueroa will be successful in achieving it.”

Angel Figueroa was finally released under parole ten years after that first interview; under the terms of his parole he was not permitted to leave his house, not even to walk around the block. He will leave there in a funeral cortege.

Last year, Iosu Urribetxeberria won his release on stringent parole conditions five years after he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had to go on hunger strike to force his release. Etxerat, the organisation of prisoners’ relatives and friends, in their February monthly report, listed thirteen seriously-ill prisoners held in prison and who should be released, not just according to humanitarian principle but by Spanish law. The diagnoses of these thirteen range from cancer to schizophrenia.

In her interviews, Mrs. Fernandez mentioned the policy of dispersal. In February, of 603 prisoners, 582 were in jails outside the Basque Country, according to Etxerat.