Inaki de Juana Transferred To The Basque Country
Basque political prisoner Inaki de Juana Chaos has ended his 114-day hunger-strike after being returned to the Basque Country.
It was reported on Wednesday (February 28) that the Spanish prison authorities would continue to force-feed Inaki after he had removed a food drip last week.
Inaki supporters
However, in a dramatic backtrack the long-serving political prisoner was transferred to a hospital in the Basque city of Donostia on Thursday (March 1). It is believed Inaki will now serve the remainder of his sentence at home under house-arrest.
De Juana began his hunger-strike in November of last year in protest at a 12-year sentence he received for writing articles in a freely available newspaper.
Although the Spanish supreme court later reduced the sentence to three years, Inaki pledged to continue his fast until he was allowed to return to his homeland.
Juan Maria Olano, a spokesperson for the Basque political prisoners’ organisation Askatasuna, announced the developments minutes before Inaki arrived at Donostia hospital.
“The main concern of Askatasuna... now is that Inaki gets his health back and doesn’t suffer any ill-effects from this dramatic hunger-strike.”
After nearly two decades in Spanish jails, it appears that Inaki is finally going home.