Overview
- Julián Atxurra Egurola, known as “Pototo,” left Zaballa prison after a legal change allowed his years in French custody to count toward his Spanish term.
- The November 2024 reform updated Spain’s Law 7/2014 on EU criminal judgments to let courts credit time served abroad, a shift that has shortened terms for about fifty ETA inmates.
- His convictions added up to 88 years but were capped at 30 under Spanish law, and the eight years he spent in French prisons moved his projected release up from 2034.
- Police linked him to ETA leadership roles that included ordering the 532-day kidnapping of prison official José Antonio Ortega Lara, as well as other attacks in the 1990s.
- The prisoners’ group Etxerat announced his release and called him a political prisoner, noting recent partial freedoms for former leaders Garikoitz Azpiazu “Txeroki” and Soledad Iparagirre “Anboto.”