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A judge investigates nine former ETA chiefs for ordering the kidnapping of Miguel Ángel Blanco and not preventing his murder

2022-03-17T17:32:37.020Z


García-Castellón, who was the magistrate who initiated the investigation of the case in 1997, highlights his "advantage" of having "direct knowledge" of what happened


Demonstration in July 1997 in Ermua (Bizkaia) after the kidnapping of Miguel Ángel Blanco to demand his release.

The judge of the National High Court, Manuel García-Castellón, issued this Thursday an order admitting the lawsuit filed by the Dignity and Justice association against nine former ETA leaders for the kidnapping and murder, in July 1997, of the then councilor of the PP in Ermua (Bizkaia) Miguel Ángel Blanco and orders the reopening of the investigation.

The magistrate, who was the first instructor of the case 25 years ago, has asked the Civil Guard for "an expert intelligence report" in which all the evidence is collected that allows determining which ETA members were part of the so-called "executive committee" of the terrorist organization when the events occurred as well as the functioning of this internal body to make decisions.

García Castellón emphasizes that with this he wants to know not only which ETA leaders participated in the decision to carry out that attack, but also who could prevent it and did not, since Blanco was held for 48 hours before being assassinated.

It is the figure of "the commission by omission", contained in article 11 of the Penal Code.

In the order, the magistrate postpones his future decision to summon the nine defendants to testify until the conclusion of this police report on the composition of the ETA leadership at the time and its internal functioning.

The reopening of the case occurs after last February 6 the association Dignidad y Justicia presented a letter to the National High Court in which it asked the judge to admit its complaint against nine former ETA leaders for the murder of the Ermua councilor. .

Specifically, against Miguel Gracia Arregui, alias

Iñaki de Rentería

;

Joseba Andoni Urrutikoetxea,

Josu Ternera

;

Mikel Albisu,

Mikel Antza

;

Jose Javier Arizcuren,

Kantauri

;

Maria Soledad Iparraguirre,

Anboto

;

Juan Carlos Iglesias,

Gaddafi

;

Asier Oyarzabal,

Baltza

;

Vicente Goicoetxea,

Willy

;

Jokin Echevarria Lagisquet;

and Carlos Ibarguren,

Nerves

.

The complaint, signed by the lawyer Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, maintained that the "material executors of the kidnapping and murder acted following the instructions received from the management" of ETA.

The National Court already sentenced three people for that murder: Francisco Javier García Gaztelu,

Txapote

, who pulled the trigger;

his partner, Irantzu Gallastegi,

Amaia

, who also participated in the execution of the attack;

already

Ibón Muñoa, former councilor of Herri Batasuna in Eibar, who worked close to where the PP councilor did and who provided the information to the previous ones.

In this Thursday's order, the judge recalls that one of the defendants, Kantauri, has already been prosecuted since 2016 for this crime as a possible inducer, having found two handwritten documents allegedly by him in which he gave "precise instructions" to the members of the Bizkaia command “so that they kidnap a PP councilor to give an ultimatum to the Government [then chaired by José María Aznar] regarding ETA's claims related to the regrouping of prisoners.

These instructions coincided with the

modus operandi

that was used in the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco”, adds the magistrate.

Therefore, the judge considers the complaint "coherent" with what has been done so far to "clarify the circle of participants and interveners" in those events.

In this sense, the judge recalls that in this case there is a "unique circumstance": that the reopening of the case has fallen to the same magistrate who initiated the investigation, which he considers an "advantage" as he has " direct knowledge of what happened.

García-Castellón was in the National Court until 2000, when he left the Central Court of Instruction 6 to hold judicial positions in Paris and Rome, until he rejoined in 2017. “This knowledge, in the first person, of what happened to the fateful days before and after the events [...] allow us to infer that the terrorist action that culminated in the firing of several projectiles on the handcuffed body of the victim deprived of liberty during the previous 48 hours,

For this reason, García-Castellón concludes that “in a few cases, such as in this attack, can the figure of the commission by omission be outlined more clearly, since those who exercised the leadership of the terrorist organization, the so-called Executive Committee, had, at least forty-eight hours to stop the action, being able to have, in all this time, presumably, a direct control of the fact, within the framework of the organization, which allows, from this procedural moment, to initiate an investigation to delimit the scope of their responsibilities”.

For all these reasons, the magistrate directs the new investigations not only to find evidence about the people who had given the instructions to kidnap and murder Blanco, but also "to determine if, who could have stopped him at any time, having knowledge of the action,

With this objective, the judge asks the Civil Guard for a report that includes "all those documentary elements" that allow determining "the degree and form of participation" in the Executive Committee of ETA or

Zuba

of its members when the attack was committed. , July 1997. It also asks the anti-terrorist experts of the armed institute to reflect "if it is considered feasible" that the then members of this internal body of the gang "had participated in the decision to carry out the aforementioned terrorist action or well if the active participation of the members of the

Zuba

they could have somehow prevented the assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco.”

Finally, the magistrate asks the agents to collect other internal documents of the terrorist organization that, although they are not directly related to that attack, "could reveal, due to their contemporary nature or close to the aforementioned attack, the

modus operandi

" which was then used by the ETA leadership to make "the decision, planning and execution of a similar terrorist action".

With the summary of the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco, there are already four cases instructed in the National Court in which former leaders of the gang are investigated.

These are the cases for the attack committed in the T-4 of the Barajas airport in 2006, which left two fatalities and whose perpetrators have already been convicted;

for the assassination of popular councilor Gregorio Ordóñez in January 1995;

and for the car bomb attack on judge Francisco Querol in 2000, which killed the judge and three other people.

In these three cases, judges Santiago Abascal and Santiago Pedraz have given the green light to investigate the former leaders of the organization.

Total,

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-03-17

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