Two jailed former militants of armed Basque separatist group ETA who’re in a romantic relationship have been allowed to share a jail cell in Spain, angering victims’ teams.

Asier Mardones and Josune Ona “have been a couple since 2006 and their prison situation allows them to live together” on the jail within the northern province of Alava the place they’re serving their sentence, a spokeswoman for the Basque Country justice division, accountable for the area’s prisons, instructed AFP.

“This is not the first time that a couple has shared a cell, it has already happened with same-sex couples”, she stated.

The pair have been sentenced to 25 years behind bars for attacking and injuring law enforcement officials in 2003 and different crimes, in keeping with Basque every day newspaper El Correo which first broke the information on Monday that the couple have been sharing a cell since final month.

ETA formally disbanded in 2018, ending a decades-long marketing campaign of bombings and shootings for an unbiased Basque homeland straddling northern Spain and southwest France through which it killed over 850 folks.

But many Spaniards imagine it has left open wounds and the remedy of former members of the group, which was designated a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United Stares, stays extremely delicate in Spain.

The information that Mardones and Ona are sharing a jail cell “has caused deep consternation and indignation among the collective of victims of terrorism”, the Association of Victims of Terrorism wrote in a letter despatched to Basque judicial authorities on Monday.

The group additionally requested them to verify or deny experiences that the pair are allowed to depart the jail to attend courses within the close by metropolis of Vitoria, the capital of the Basque Country.

But the Basque Country justice division spokeswoman stated permitting the couple to share a cell was “not a privilege” and the jail administration doesn’t “dinstinguish between inmates” primarily based on their convictions.

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