Spain's National Court revokes ex-ETA leader Anboto's semi-liberty and two third-degree regimes

The ruling

On Tuesday, 10 November 2026, the prison surveillance court of Spain's National Court revoked the semi-liberty regime granted to Soledad Iparraguirre, known as Anboto, a former ETA leader. In three separate rulings, judge José Luis Castro also revoked the third-degree prison status given to Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi and Arkaitz Aguirregabiria, two other ETA members. Castro upheld appeals filed by the National Court's prosecutors, one against a proposal from the prison treatment board in Anboto's case and two against decisions taken by the Basque government on the other inmates. The Basque government has run prisons in the Basque Country since taking over those powers in 2021.

Why the judge refused Anboto's regime

Castro had already revoked Anboto's semi-liberty several months earlier, and in the ruling made public on Tuesday he said nothing had changed since then. In the earlier ruling he listed 10 murders, possession of explosives, attacks, arson, possession of weapons and crimes against the Crown, which accumulated into a 30-year prison sentence. According to the judge, her final release date is September 2034. The treatment board at the Zubieta prison in San Sebastian, where she is held, had proposed for a second time a more flexible regime under article 100.2 of the Penitentiary Regulation. That regime would have let her leave prison from Monday to Friday for voluntary work, on the condition that she return each night to sleep inside. Castro found that the prison administration had offered no new elements to justify the change, and he said the proposal lacked the "qualified novelty" needed to reconsider the matter over such a short period.

The two third-degree cases

The judge also struck down the third-degree status for Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi, who was convicted of 10 murders and 144 frustrated murders. The judge acknowledged a positive development in his case, but he noted that the article 100.2 regime had been granted to him in July 2025 and that only a relatively short period has passed since then. The reports give fewer details on Arkaitz Aguirregabiria, whose third-degree status was revoked in the same set of decisions. The judge considers that favourable progress by inmates is not enough on its own to justify easing their sentences, particularly for terrorism offences of extreme gravity.

Reaction and open questions

The judge reproached the penitentiary administration for raising the regime again without presenting new elements that would justify a different decision. Sources in the Basque government declined to comment on the rulings. The court has now blocked the second semi-liberty the Basque government granted to Anboto within a year. The rulings describe the case as unchanged since the earlier decision, and her final release date remains September 2034, according to the judge.