Spanish court grants parole to ill ETA member

Spain's top criminal court on Wednesday granted parole to a terminally ill member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, after a campaign for his release by fellow ETA prisoners. The court voted four to one in favour of conditional release for Iosu Uribetxebarria, a convicted kidnapper, backing an earlier lower court ruling. Prosecutors had appealed the original decision. Wednesday's ruling is bound to revive the polemic over the affair. Groups representing the families of victims of ETA attacks had already condemned the earlier court ruling in favour of his release on compassionate grounds. "This concession to terrorists is a victory for ETA," said an association representing the families of ETA's victims, AVT, in a statement issued last month. ETA announced in October a definitive end to armed actions but has neither formally disarmed nor disbanded. The Spanish government refuses to negotiate with it, demanding it disband. Uribetxebarria was jailed for kidnapping a prison official in the 1990s and has been transferred to a hospital in the Basque Country where he is being treated for cancer.