CALL: IMMEDIATE FREEDOM FOR MARÍA JOSÉ BAÑOS ANDÚJAR

More and more political prisoners, including Pablo Hasel, are joining the hunger strike, demanding the release of Maria Jose Bagnos.

Over 30 organisations and soldarity networks demand immediate release of sick political prisoner in Spain, María José Baños Andújar.

We share the collective call and statement of solidarity:

As collectives and organisations, we raise our voices to denounce the extremely serious situation of political prisoner María José Baños Andújar, currently incarcerated in the Campos del Río prison (Murcia), who is seriously ill and in real danger of death due to her continued imprisonment and the systematic denial of her fundamental rights.

María José Baños Andújar, Marijose, is an anti-fascist activist and political prisoner of GRAPO who has fought, and continues to do so from her cell, against the atrocities of capitalism and fascism in the Spanish state.

She was arrested in 2002, in a context of fierce political persecution. Like so many other activists of her generation, she was tortured during her detention: isolation, physical and psychological violence, humiliation and threats. These acts of torture have never been investigated or prosecuted, but they are part of the repressive history of the state.

Since then, she has been imprisoned for more than 20 years, passing through different prisons, subjected to isolation, dispersal and continual punishment. In November 2018, Marijose had served three quarters of her sentence, which, combined with her fragile health and a serious and incurable illness, should have allowed her to be released on parole. However, her lawyers’ requests have been systematically rejected. The state wants her to die in prison.

María José’s current situation is neither an administrative anomaly nor a medical error: it is a deliberate political decision. The refusal to grant parole is solely and exclusively motivated by the fact that Marijose does not repent. She is being asked to renounce her political career in order to access a fundamental right. The law is being violated in order to exert ideological and political blackmail.