Ignacio Miguel Gracia Arregui, 'Iñaki de Rentería', leaves the Soto del Real prison (Madrid) in 2011. Kiko Huesca (EFE)
Alejandro Abascal, magistrate of the National High Court, has given new impetus to the open investigation against ETA leaders for the murder of Gregorio Ordóñez, a PP councilor whom the terrorist group shot in the neck in January 1995. The judge has summoned Ignacio Miguel Gracia Arregui, former head of the organization and known under the alias
Iñaki de Rentería
, to testify as accused for his alleged participation in the decision-making to attack the popular mayor of San Sebastián.
The ETA member must appear on February 24, as stated in an order issued this Wednesday.
The judge considers it necessary to “hear a statement” from Iñaki de Rentería, who will be able to testify by videoconference from the San Sebastián courts.
As detailed in the resolution, the ETA member was part of the executive committee of ETA from mid-1992 - when he rose to the leadership after the security forces dismantled the then leadership in the so-called Bidart coup, considered a police milestone - to September 2000, when he was arrested.
In addition, the magistrate adds, he was "responsible for the military and logistical apparatus."
And, therefore, he "temporarily formed part of the terrorist leadership on the dates that Mr. Ordóñez was assassinated."
This revival of the cause occurs after Abascal questioned last December the former head of ETA Mikel Albisu,
Mikel Antza,
who received the support of some thirty members of Sortu (a party that is part of the EH Bildu coalition) and of prominent figures of the nationalist left
when he
went to testify in the courts of the capital of Gipuzkoa.
After listening to him, the magistrate decided to withdraw Antza's passport, considering his relationship with the murder of the former popular councilor "reliable and plausible".
The case against the ETA leaders began in 2015, when Judge Santiago Pedraz admitted for processing the complaint filed by Consuelo Ordóñez, sister of the PP politician, against five ETA members who, when the attack was committed, were part of the so-called executive committee of the band: Iñaki de Rentería, Mikel Albisu, Julián Achurra Egurola, José Javier Arizcuren Ruiz and Juan Luis Aguirre Lete.
The magistrate based his decision on a report from the Civil Guard that provided "reliable and plausible indications of the participation of the accused in the decision to kill" the councillor: ETA acted with "a hierarchy based on rigid discipline" in which its management "assumes all managerial functions in such a way that there is nothing that the leadership does not control, promote or direct".
