Best of 2023: The widow and the murderer: a friendship born of tragedy

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we’ve chosen it. From October: A decade after Maixabel Lasa’s husband was shot by Basque separatists, she received a message from one of his killers. He wanted to meet her. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Gabi Logan from the Midpoint with Gabby Logan where I talk
0:15.5	with well-known faces about their midlife challenges and expectations. I'm
0:19.3	currently sponsored by Virgin Money a brilliant and straightforward way to invest for your future.
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0:33.0	Search online for Virgin Money stocks and shares ISA to find out more.
0:36.6	Terms apply, capital at risk, Virgin Money is a trading name of Virgin Money Unit Trust Managers Limited. Hello, my name is Claire Longrick and I'm the deputy editor of the Long Reed.
1:00.0	Following our festive tradition, over the holiday season we're celebrating a few of our favorite reads of the year.
1:10.0	The Basque Separatist group Eta called a halt to its violent campaign of bomb attacks and assassinations,
1:17.6	and about five years ago handed over its arms.
1:22.3	Giles Tremlett, who's one of the most frequent and very talented contributors to the long
1:28.4	Reed, has been reporting on Aeter for about 20 years.
1:31.9	He's been based in Spain as a news reporter.
1:35.0	And for this article he got to witness one of the aftershocks of Etta's campaign
1:41.0	which turned out to be a story with a very surprising twist.
1:45.0	There was my colleague David Wolf who read about an initiative in which prisoners convicted of violent attacks for Etta were writing letters to their victims or the families of their victims in a move to promote reconciliation.
2:08.0	Giles got in touch with Maishebel Lassa, the widow of a Basque politician who'd been assassinated by Etta in 2000 and told her extraordinary story.
2:19.0	In late 2010, Maishebel received a letter from a repentant Eta convict, and the letter asked
2:26.5	how prisoners could go about apologizing to their victims' families for what they'd done.
2:32.1	What followed was an example of the power of forgiveness and showed how
2:36.8	empathy can help people change. It's a remarkable story in itself and the details are incredibly dramatic and very sad.
2:46.8	But what makes Giles Tremelet's account so good is not just his deep knowledge of Spanish politics and the story of Eta.
	...

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