United We can ask that the parliamentary 'pension' be withdrawn from the former socialist deputy Damborenea, convicted by the GAL

On the left, Ricardo García Damborenea, at a PSOE rally in which Ramón Rubial, Felipe González and Txiki Benegas participated.Ricardo Martín

The Parliamentary Group of United We Can has registered a letter in Congress this Tuesday in which it demands that the presidents of the Lower House, Meritxell Batet, and the Senate, Ander Gil, suspend "as soon as possible" the monthly economic benefit of 2,063.75 euros received by former socialist deputy Ricardo García Damborenea as "income supplementation" for his status as a former parliamentarian.

The letter recalls that García Damborenea, 82 years old and who held a seat in Congress between 1982 and 1989, was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Supreme Court for his involvement in the kidnapping of Segundo Marey in 1983, the considered first attack of the GAL in the

against ETA.

Unidas Podemos considers that, for this reason, this retribution charged to the budgets of the Cortes "supposes an attack against the memory and dignity of the victims of terrorism", according to the letter to which EL PAÍS has had access.

The former general secretary of the PSE of Bizkaia ―and who was partially pardoned in 1998 by the Government of José María Aznar― has received this aid for years in application of article 9 of the Regulation of Parliamentary Pensions and other Economic Benefits, approved in 2006 , which contemplates it for already retired deputies and senators who have not been able to obtain a parliamentary pension due to the length of their mandate, and always at their request.

The concession has "the character of ex gratia" and its allocation must "be adopted by means of a reasoned resolution of the Boards of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate in joint session, which must be adopted with the favorable vote of three fifths of its members," it points out. the aforementioned regulation after a 2011 modification that also forced them to be made public.

This is one of the three economic aids that the regulation contemplates for ex-deputies and ex-senators, together with the severance pay and parliamentary pensions.

More information

Former Minister José Barrionuevo: "I ordered the release of Segundo Marey"

It is the tables of both Chambers that establish "the amount of aid and the conditions of access" to this "income supplementation", which is updated annually in September.

Currently, another 38 former parliamentarians receive different amounts for the same concept, ranging from the 76 euros received by the former PP senator Luis Piñero to the 2,907 received by the popular former parliamentarian Laura Martínez Berenguer.

The one received by García Damborenea is the second highest, as detailed in the agreement made public on October 28.

In total, the Cortes disburse close to half a million euros per year to former parliamentarians for this concept alone.

61 widowed spouses of former deputies and former senators, all of them women except one, also receive an “income supplement”.

United We Can denounce in the note in which it announces its initiative "the impunity that exists around State crimes" and recalls the recent statements to EL PAÍS by the former Minister of the Interior, José Barrionuevo, also convicted of the kidnapping of Segunda Marey, in which he recognized the existence of the dirty war.

According to the training, these types of events "are intolerable and unjustifiable because they also cause legal uncertainty and denigrate the victims."

Unidas Podemos considers "a democratic commitment on the part of the public powers necessary for there to be justice for all the victims of terrorism" and, for this, believes a reform of the official secret law "fundamental" that allows us to know "what happened [ during the dirty war] according to the principles of truth, justice,

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