Basque groups rally in Bilbao to support sick ETA prisoners

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao on Saturday to demand the release of seriously ill inmates from the Basque separatist group ETA. The demonstration went ahead on a central square even though authorities Friday had banned ETA support group Herrira from holding a rally. About 1,000 people from independent Basque groups gathered under the watchful eye of police, without any incidents. At issue are the cases of seriously ill ETA prisoners and whether they should be released on compassionate grounds. Protests coalesced around Iosu Uribetxebarria, who was jailed for kidnapping a prison official in the 1990s, but have broadened to include demands for the release of 13 other sick inmates. Uribetxebarria was sentenced in 1998 to 32 years in jail for the kidnapping of a prison services employee. He has been on hunger strike for 11 days demanding parole because he is sick with cancer, and scores of other jailed ETA members across Spain and France have joined in the hunger strike. The interior ministry said Friday it had agreed to grant Uribetxebarria a special status that would qualify him for release due to illness, though a judge must still rule on the matter. ETA is blamed for more than 800 killings in a four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings to create a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France.