French judge Laurence Le Vert pointed the tax office towards organizations that collect money to finance the weekly, long journeys to the Basque political prisoners that are dispersed all over France and Spain.

The Basque prisoner-aid organization 'Etxerat' ('Home') published cyphers about the recent transfers of political prisoners in June. The last 20 transfered prisoners are further away from home than before; To visit them a collective amount of 27.952 kilometers have to be traveled; Of the 698 Basque political prisoners only 12 are close to home in Basque prisons. The dispersion politics, that is continued under Zapatero, cost already the lives of 16 friends and family members, causes by traffic accidents during the long journey.

On 6 July 2 Basque refugees Jon López Gómez and Diego Ugarte López de Arkaute are extradited by Belgium to Spain. Diego is suspected of parking a bombcar in February 2002 in Gasteiz, that killed PSE member Fernando Buesa and his bodyguard. Ugarte is said to have rented the appartament where the commando resided. Gómez is suspected of launching an arson attack on a coach. He spent 1 year in imprisonment on remand and was finally sentenced to 17 years of prison. Both of them were arrested in Boussou (Belgium) on 31 March,2004. There was no proof to the accusations. Main evidence was a tapped conversation in prison between their lawyers. In this conversation the statement 'the declarations about torture have to be well formulated' was made. The conviction value of this 'evidence' was denied. In the end both of the 2 men are not prosecuted for forgery in Belgium.

On 8 July 3000 people gathered in Zornotza, in the province Bizkaia, to protest against the detention of José Mari Sagardui, that is lasting already 25 years. If the law was followed that states that after 3 quarter of the detention release has to come, then Sagardui would be free already in 1995. Sagurdui in detained in isolation in the prison of Jaen in Andalusia, 800 kilometers away from his hometown. The prisoners aid organization Etxerat is accusing the silence of Basque governing parties.

On 28 July 2 men are arrested in Grenoble, France, on suspicion of ETA-membership. They were in possession of weapons and false indentificationpapers and were 'planning to hit in Spain', according to the police.

The accusation of the organization AVT, the 'victims of terrorism', against the Basque political party EHAK was dealt with. AVT claims that EHAK is the follow-up of Batasuna and thereby belongs to ETA. EHAK was declared innocent on those charges by the public ministry. More luck for the AVT on 13 of July: Ernando Grande-Marlaska, the successor of the infamous Baltasar Garzon, decides to investigate the charges against EHAK bases on 'collaboration with an armed group'. Ex-minister Angel Acebes even said that 'Zapatero holds back evidence for the judges,which leads to the conclusion that EHAK has to be illegalised'. The board and founders of EHAK Juan Carlos Ramos, Aritz Blazquez, Javier Ramos and Juan Manuel Rodriguez, of which none are represented in the Basque parliament, are being prosecuted.

The university of the Basque country is doing a survey within the Basque population; This time they called 1.800 people with some questions. 77% supports negotiations with ETA, 50% wants that ETA disarms before the negotiations, 27% wants negotiations without any conditions. Of this group 85% votes for EHAK, 29% for the PNV and 61% for Aralar. 94% of the PP-voters is against any negotiations with ETA. 55% wants amnesty for ETA prisoners in case of disarment, 21% is against any form of amnesty. 67% is against the illegalisation of EHAK, 19%, mainly PP-voters, wants that EHAK is prosecutes because of its support by Batasuna. 56% of the questioned is against ETA, 0.3% explicitly supports ETA.

The Basque government tries it again; on July 20 they asked the Spanish government to hand over 3 competences, as written in the statute of Guernika from 1978. The statute foresees the autonomy of the 3 Basque provinces Bizkaia, Araba and Gipuzkoa. It is about competences in the area of employment politics, prisons and the financial side of social security. At the same time the confirmation was given of another 5 competences, that were already asked for in 2001 and 2002, in the area municipal council elections, private security companies, railroadnet, scientific research and roads. Often the far reaching autonomy is pointed out. That is true in theory, but in practice a lot of competences are not handed over yet to the Basque autonomous government by Madrid

The Basque anti-torture organization TAT did their yearly balance concerning the torture of Basques, especially younglings, that are put in isolation detention; of the 47 person that were placed under 'incommunicado', 44 were tortured.

In Baiona, France, the spokesman of the left Basque youth organization SEGI(that is forbidden in Spain), Eneko Aizpuru, was arrested on 5 July and directly extradited to Spain. Aizpuru was arrested in France before, on 19 april 2002, but had to be released because of technical details. France dealt with Spains extradition warrant and approved it.

On 14 July seven years have passes since the Spanish government closes the leftwing newspaper EGIN and the equally named radio station. Both of them were accusesed of being part of ETA; up until today nothing that points in that direction is proven. But 200 people lost their jobs and 15 were arrested, of which 11 spent a long time in prison.

On 18 July the charges of 'glorifying terrorism' against Araitz Zubimendi were dropped by the court in Bilbao. The charges were bases on the fact that she was carrying the coffin that contained the human remains of Olaia Kastresena. The last one lost her life when a bomb she wanted to place exploded too early. Before that Arnaldo Otegi and Jos Salaberria were accused in the same case; charges against them were also dropped. Zubimendi remains in prison, after she was extradited to Spain by France because of 'membership in an armed group' in the 'Jarrai-Haika-Segi'-case.

Iñaki Uria, former director of Basque paper Egunkaria, that was closed down by the Spanish government on 20 february, has to testify at the court in Donostia about his testimony that he was tortured for 5 days by the Guardia Civil after his arrest 29 month ago. The supportcomite of Egunkaria organized a manifestation in front of the door of the courthouse. Urai accused the judge for his slow pace in the case and mentioned that he is still wounded at his left foot. The officers of the Guardia Civil testify in Madrid.

On 20 July Imanol Gómez Gonzáles from Donostia died in Faugnac,France after he tried to escape the French police that were controlling the road. He hit a tree with his car. 24 hours later his identity was made public and the papers wrote that 'documents were found on him that connect him to ETA'. In Spain Gómez was not wanted. His death is surrounded by misteries and the Basque anti-repression organization Askatasuna calls upon the authorities to clarify the situation. In Donostia and various other villages people go out on the streets the next day to accuse his death. In Donostia Iker Otamendi, Iñaki Aristi en Mikel López are arrested and transfered to the prison Soto del Real in Madrid. They are accused of 'terrorism' and 'gloryfication'. A former council member of Batasuna, Josetxo Ibazeta, is shot in the back with a rubber bullet and 3 vertebras of his spine are broken by the Basque police Ertzaintza.

On 27 July 6 people were arrested in Bizkaia and Naffaroa on accusations of 'membership of the recruitmentmachinery and infrastructure of ETA'. 3 days later Ainara Artetxe, Gorka López, Unai Gorostizaga and Alberto Gil are released. Maite Orue had to pay 12.000 euro bail and Sue Lorenzo was locked up in prison.