This file is a mirror of EUSKAL HERRIA JOURNAL by Basque Red Net.

With regard to preventive detention, the European Parliament, in Resolution a3-0025/93 on respecting human rights in the European Community,

"insists that the principle of the presumption of innocence requires that any decision on preventive detention be based on legitimate and exceptional motives; it considers arbitrary the use of preventive detention as a general rule."

On this subject, Art. 9.3 of the International Agreement on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Spain on April 27, 1977, establishes that any person arrested or imprisoned on account of some penal infraction has the right either to be tried within a reasonable period or set free. The article also states that preventive detention of individuals who are to be tried should not become a general rule. Art. 14.3 of the same agreement establishes that during preventive detention all persons have the right to be tried with undue delay. According to the data in our possession, we can say that where political prisoners are concerned, preventinve detention lasts between 1 to 4 years, which is far too long.

In the Resolution referred to above, the European Parliament is of the opinion that prisoners should enjoy at least the following basic rights:

• right to privacy;
• right to dignity and physical and moral safety;
• right to visit and receive communications;
• right to health and hygiene;
• right to legal and social aid, above all with a view to his or her integration into society.

Life in the penitenciary centers, rights of all individuals deprived of their freedom, the line between discipline and security measures, etc., are all regulated in the penitenciary legislation, but as before we find a huge gap between daily practice and the letter of the law.

Torture in prisons, whether directed against someone detained as a preventive measure or a condemned prisoner, could be described as CHRONIC, in the sense that it occurs over a long time and disturbs the life of the person imprisoned. It is worth noting that the Government has decided to forcibly disperse these prisoners, re-allocating them hundreds of kilometres from home, which means that family and friends have to make long journeys to be with them. The living conditions these prisoners have to put with on occasions could be described as a breach of their rights. Such breaches usually take the following forms:

a) Body and cell searches: The law expressly states such searches should be carried out with respect for the dignity of the individual. Prisoners frequently inform our Association that they have been made to strip naked to be searched, without any specific reason being given. Relatives have often been made to strip too before allowed to speak to a prisoner. Any family member refusing to submit to this humiliation has been refused to access to the prisoner. Violent cell searches, which often leave the cell in a state of complete upheaval, are likely to be made at any time of the day or night. Personal objects are frequently broken or just disappear on these occasions.

b) Roll calls: Also carried out at any time of the day or night, breaking up the prisoner's normal routine during the day or ruining his sleep at night, which is another form of psychological torture that constantly breaks the natural phases of the prisoner's sleep. Prisoners are usually made to stand to form up; any refusal to do so is answered with reports, sanctions and confinement.

c) Right to education: Both the Constitution and Spanish legislation regulate the right of a prisoner to be given access to culture and the right to develop his or her personality to the full. Many prisoners are currently studying but the list of obstacles and difficulties to study normally is endless. Among other things, most have nowhere to study, the materials they need arrive up to six months late and they are prevented from talking to teachers and tutors.

d) Right to health: Sanitary conditions in Spanish gaols are so bad they constitute inhuman or cruel treatment in themselves. Lack of ventilation, overcrowding facilitating the transmission of diseases, lack of health care: prisoners who are ill are often not treated at the right time or by the correct specialist. Prisoners with advanced psychological problems are subjected to conditions that aggravate their illnesses. Poor food and hygiene, the absence of preventive medicine, all these things undermine the health of the prisoners. When a prisoner makes a request to be attended by a professional doctor working outside the prison, the application is refused for security reasons.

Nine Basque political prisoners have died in French and Spanish prisons since 1981. The latest is Peio Marinelarena, imprisoned at La Sante (Paris) while awaiting trial. On April 30, 1993, he was diagnosed to be in the terminal phase of AIDS, although clear symptoms had been visible since November, 1992. According to family and fellow political prisoners, in those six months he was not given suitable treatment. Marinelarena died on May 15, 1993.

e) Confinement: This may last continuously up to 15 days and may be renewed again for the same period after a mere 24-hour return to the normal regime. Confinement can have dramatic psychological consequences for the prisoner, as during that time he or she cannot communicate with other prisoners. Some prisoners sanctioned with confinement have had all their belongings taken from them, including paper and pens, and been left with just a blanket, toothbrush and toothpaste. The cells where prisoners undergo this kind of sanction have steel plates perforated with tiny holes causing the "disco effect."

f) Physical violence: Art. 6 of the General Prisons Act states as follows: "No prisoner shall be subjected to abuse either by word or deed." Art. 5.1 of Prison Regulations is couched in similar temrs: "No prisoner shall be subjected to tortures, or to abuse by word or deed; nor shall he or she be object of unnecessary strictness in the application of the regulations." These articles are breached daily by prison guards, warders and by the Civil Guard policemen responsible for guarding prisoners when they are transferred from one prison to another. Prisoners are moved from prison to prison with the only apparent aim of making it impossible for them to settle. The prisoners are moved on infrahuman conditions: no ventilation, heavily handcuffed, without being allowed to get out of the van to attend to their natural bodily functions, etc. Beatings during transfers are regularly reported. Attacks consist of hard hits, punches and kicks to the body, insults, vexations and humiliations. We have also received testimony of warders beating prisoners up in their cells when the latter refuse to obey what they consider to be an unjustified order. Completely motiveless beatings are not unknown. The information we have compiled during 1992 and the first few months of 1993 is shocking. At least 51 Basque men and women prisoners have been attacked in that time.

The inhuman living conditions that we have, very briefly, summarized and explained (there is a wealth of material on the situation in prisons which we have not touched on here) have sparked off a number of hunger strikes involving prisoners trying to win the rights the law guarantees them.

In 1992, Basque political prisoners went on eleven hunger strikes, in last-ditch attempts to win proper living conditions and to ensure that their legally-established rights were respected. On a number of occasions, the strike was provoked when one or other of the prisoners was beaten up.

According to our information, these prisoners were not given proper medical treatment either while they were on hunger strike or after the strike had finished. On the contrary, many were punished further and confined, leading to serious health problems that have not been satisfactorily resolved.

We would particularly like to mention the extreme situation at the Salto del Negro prison in the Canary Islands. In 1992, Basque prisoners went on hunger strike three times, totalling 108 days of fast in all. In 1991, four strikes took place and this year a further strike took place in April and May.

Source: Torturaren Aurkako Taldea.