BRITISH magistrates have refused to extradite ETA member Antonio Troitiño who fled to London in 2011.
Judge Emma Arbuthnot of Westminster Court has found the European arrest warrant calling for the return of Troitiño – who has used up to six fake IDs since being jailed in Spain – to be invalid.
She says the detention order 'completely lacks' details of one of the two offences which the former ETA prisoner is accused of by the National Court in Madrid, relating to possession of forged identification documents and for which he would be required to serve the maximum sentence applicable.
This is stated on the arrest warrant to be between six and 12 years, although in later communications, the National Court of Spain said it would be between one and three years in prison.
This is the second extradition proceeding concerning Troitiño (pictured above left) in the UK – the first, which began after his arrest there in June 2012, reached stalemate after the European Union overturned the so-called 'Parot Doctrine'.
Named after Henri Parot, this doctrine stated that any early-release credits – one day for every two days of full-time work carried out whilst behind bars – would apply to the actual sentence, not the custodial term to be served.
Many ETA terrorists, as well as the Al-Qaeda bombers who blew up a train at Madrid's Atocha station killing 192 people – have been given exemplary sentences of between 80 and 4,000 years, meaning early-release credits accumulated would never actually result in their getting out before time.
But with the Parot Doctrine overturned, these day credits now have to be applied to the actual time to be served – a maximum of 30 years in Spain.
It led to many dangerous criminals, including notorious ETA killer Inés del Río Prada and the man convicted of murdering the three Alcásser (Valencia province) teens, Miguel Ricart, being immediately released.
Troitiño, now 56, was jailed for the Guardia Civil bus bombing in Madrid's Plaza de la República Dominicana in 1986, along with Inés del Río Prada and released in 2011, but with the Parot Doctrine applied retrospectively at a later date, Spanish authorities wanted to put him back into prison to serve another seven years to complete his sentence.
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