[JURIST] Spain’s Interior Ministry [official website] on Monday arrested [press release, in Spanish] 16 individuals for alleged connections with Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], an armed Basque separatist group. Twelve of the individuals arrested were lawyers, while the other four were treasurers for a group that represents ETA prisoners. All 16 will be charged with membership of a terrorist organization, while 12 will additionally be charged with tax fraud and money laundering. The individuals were arrested in Madrid and the northern regions of Basque and Navarra.

A large number of suspected ETA members have been arrested throughout Europe over the past few years. Spain has continued to imprison members of the ETA under the Parot Doctrine, which permits sentence reductions for each individual sentence rather than the now-maximum 30-year sentence. In October 2013 the Spanish National Court [official website, in Spanish] ordered [JURIST report] the release of 13 members of the ETA. In the press release the court explained that the Parot doctrine was illegal under EU law. In 2011 the Collective of Basque Political Prisoners (EPPK) released a statement [JURIST report] supporting the 2010 Guernica agreement [PDF, in Spanish] and called for the ETA to commit to a permanent truce. Despite the EPPK’s statement, the Spanish government continues to actively pursue charges [JURIST report] against ETA.