ETA prisoner De Juana's moves outside hospital spark controversy

Conservative PP's secretary general, Angel Acebes, described as an "authentic shame" and "scandal for the conscience of all democrats" that the ETA prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos left hospital several times after he was granted reduced prison terms.

"De Juana Chaos, one of the bloodiest terrorist, instead of being in prison, is going shopping out there with his girlfriend," Acebes said. "That is where the process led us; to a situation of real shame," he added.

In turn, Penitentiary Institutions assured that the department "exclusively" authorised the Basque prisoner to leave hospital to go to optician's and homeopath's, where he was taken in a private car and under police surveillance.

Sources of the department specified that the prisoner has left hospital twice: once to go to an optician's and another to homeopath's. Thus, they insisted that, after reviewing reports, they have no records that the prisoner has ever gone "shopping," but he could have bought some products in these two establishments.

The sources noted that De Juana is still recovering in hospital and has already gained some weight after his long hunger strike.

The spokesman of the Socialist Group in Congress; Diego Lopez Garrido, assured that every time the prisoner has left hospital it has been "authorised, controlled and guarded as De Juana Chaos is a prisoner and has always been a prisoner."