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Former ETA chief Txeroki is acquitted in another trial at the National Court

2022-09-26T15:58:49.071Z


The judges consider that there is no evidence of the terrorist's participation in an attack in the center of Bilbao committed in 2002


Garikoitz Aspiazu, former head of ETA, this September at the National High Court. Fernando Villar (EFE)

The National Court has acquitted one of the most bloodthirsty former ETA chiefs, Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, alias

Txeroki

, of the car bomb attack perpetrated in the center of Bilbao in January 2002, which left only two minor injuries, but which the authorities described as as a real attempted "massacre".

The court has concluded that, although the terrorist was part of

the Olaia commando

, which committed the crime, there is insufficient evidence that he participated in planting the explosive device.

The Prosecutor's Office requested a sentence of 32 years in prison for Txeroki, who was handed over by France last January to be tried for these acts.

In 2019 he was already acquitted of the murder of magistrate José María Lidón.

More information

A new trial begins against former ETA boss Txeroki for an attack in Bilbao: "I did not participate in that action"

"There can only be an acquittal", reads the judgment of the Second Section of the Criminal Chamber, "due to the insufficiency of the evidence presented in the act of the trial that allows establishing, beyond all reasonable doubt , the authorship of the accused in the facts”.

According to the magistrates, the prosecution has not presented "any direct evidence" of Txeroki's involvement in the Bilbao attack;

and has ruled out the validity of the testimony in police offices of Gorka Martínez, a former member of ETA who pointed out the former head of the gang.

Martínez affirmed in the trial, held this September at the National High Court, that he did not know Txeroki at the time of the attack and that, at first, he testified against him because the Police "tortured" him.

The judges consider that, based on the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, they cannot then consider his statement at the police headquarters as an element that serves by itself to undermine the presumption of innocence of the accused.

And in addition, the magistrates add, the expert reports "do not contribute anything" concrete that evidence the participation of Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu.

In the oral hearing, Txeroki denied his involvement in the attack: "I did not participate in this action and I do not know anything about it," said the ETA member, to whom the Prosecutor's Office attributed crimes of terrorist havoc, robbery or theft of use of a motor vehicle with intimidation and illegal detention for terrorist purposes.

The car bomb exploded at 1:45 p.m. on January 12, 2002 at the confluence of Gran Vía and Alameda de Mazarredo streets, in the vicinity of the Bank of Spain, and near the BBVA and El Corte Inglés, in full sales.

It was a Renault 18 loaded with 30 kilos of dynamite, which the terrorists had stolen from its owner that same day after holding him at gunpoint, kidnapping him and abandoning him in an isolated area, where they tied him to a tree with his hands behind his back.

After remaining on the run, France arrested Txeroki in November 2008, when he was the most wanted leader of the gang.

The ETA member is currently serving a sentence in the neighboring country for his membership in ETA, although the National Court itself has sentenced him for other crimes: for example, in 2011, to 377 years in prison for 20 assassination attempts.

France already handed him over to Spain temporarily in 2019 so that he could be tried for his alleged participation in the murder of magistrate José María Lidón, shot on November 7, 2001 in Getxo (Bizkaia).

A case in which he, like now, he was also acquitted.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-09-26

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