Historically, a court of the Spanish Monarchy passed the following resolution: "The officers in charge of the custody of Iratxe Sorzabal applied electrodes to force him to testify, which constitutes a flagrant violation of his fundamental human rights." In other words, after the arrest in 2001, the Civil Guard tortured Iratxe with total impunity.

Iratxe told the Basque Country from the first moment: He was arrested in March 2001, and by October photos of his tortured skin were rolling. As soon as he was released, Iratxe fled so that he would not be caught again. In exile, when he was in Belgium, encouraged by his militant commitment, he confessed to the journalist Eneko Bidegain the torments he had suffered in the dungeons of Madrid: "Was I afraid of dying? I wanted to kill him." In 2015 he was arrested again in Iratxe, Baigorri, while advocating for a new political scenario in the Basque Country.

Since then, he has denounced countless times the suffering of Iratxe during those five long days. At the trial in 2022, he described the atrocious persecutions: "I was beaten with electrodes until the machine's batteries ran out." "You want to die, but you can't"; the Basque activist was in the hands of professional torturers.

We Basque citizens knew that Iratxe had been tortured for being a Basque activist, probably by the judges as well. And yet, Benito Morentin had to produce a study report to prove the obvious, and the French Pierre Duterte had to produce another. Both concluded that Iratxe had been tortured; several courts ignored the reports. And despite the denial of the obvious by the courts, Basque citizens knew that torture has been a common practice in Spain: torture has been used by the Spanish Monarchy to crush the detainee, to obtain information, to spread fear in independence, and in general to destroy the Basque resistance. Iratxe taught us, as well as the feminist movement, that not only as a Basque, but also as a woman, the Civil Guard persecuted the Irundian. On May 8, 2025, the court confirmed what was obvious to everyone, and it is no small thing.

A quarter of a century has passed since those days of torture, barely two days since we have known the sentence; and we, two Irúños, go to Zaballa prison, where we have a visit with Iratxe. We're nervous, we're in jail. Three groups of people stand out clearly in the waiting room: Basques, Gypsies and Latin Americans. We've passed the access controls, we've been driven across the courtyard to a new building; visas to the left and us to the right; there are those damn cabins. We are nervous because Iratxe is coming soon, because she is inside and we are outside, because it is only forty minutes, because the cabin is made for incommunication, and it is historic. Iratxe succeeds: she has been confessed to being tortured, her struggle has won the resolution of the exceptional court. They're coming!

He sits quickly, we’re staring at him, he’s staring at us too, he’s got a sparkly look, he takes the phone as he sits, “congratulations everyone! “He told us. Damn, he's got to congratulate us! He tells us that recognition is the victory of an entire people, of all of us who have fought from prison and from the street, so that what we have always known was recognized: here it is tortured. It has been hard, very, incessantly stripping the visceral pains in front of the judge’s despicable gaze, but Iratxe is a political militant, and that is why he has done so, in all the squares where he has had the opportunity, in all the courts, even in the most difficult situation. Iratxe has read the sentence, of course, she also says that it is historical, how it is received, the background and the form. He is speaking to us with caution; it remains to be seen what he will change in view of his condition, but one thing is clear: In the Basque Country, at least 5,657 people have been tortured in their skin, and today their word is stronger than yesterday, undeniable. The recognition of the courts has been a victory for the dignity of the tortured; it has also been a test of the incapacity of the state. Today, it is hard for anyone to say that torture was an invention of the resistant Basques.

But Iratxe does not want to talk only about torture, because she is not a militant of the past, but of the present, and she is very hungry for news about the affairs of Irún. The Lakaxite, the transformative economy, Moscow, Semilla, the pensionists, the migrations, the patriotic left, EH Bil, the neighborhood, Bor-Bor, the feminist movement... wants to know about everything, because they want to be part of it; the prisons are made to isolate themselves, and they achieve this goal if we forget that the outsiders are inside. Iratxe has given us a lot and asked only one thing: send the information of the village, please. We have committed ourselves to it: we will do it and tell those around us so that they too can send information. Magazines or letters, everything is valid to make a hole in the prison, to bring Iratxe closer to us.

40 minutes, the measured and relentless sound of the doorbell has taken us out of the dream. For a moment we believed that we were somewhere else; who knows where, but far from this cabin. With the last look we have confirmed the commitments, "we will bring the rumor of the street to Zaballa, be sure; and enjoy today, the victory is yours! ". We came out excited, even irritated, even with a little joy: We have seen the Goblin full of strength, enthusiastic and fully intelligent.

We've turned on the GPS in the car, we'll be home in two hours. The times of Murcia II or Puerto de Santa María have passed, and thanks. We have overcome the inhumane policy of dispersal, we have the prisoners now closer, physically; but they are as far away as before if we do not visit them, if we do not write to them, if we do not share with them the information of the people; if we forget that they are militant members.

As soon as I left for Irun, I put the following on the agenda: "Write to Iratxe, send materials, magazines and texts from Irún. The address is: CP Araba, Zaballa. House in Portillo san miguel, 1. N-1, kilometer 340. 01230, Langraiz, Alava. Pay attention to him! Don't forget to put the transmitter on! ".

Iker Eizagirre 'Xufi' and Juan Mari Arrozpide 'Bixarras', two friends of Iratxe
2025-05-13