Funeral for the legionary knight Alejandro Jiménez Cruz at the Viator base (Almeria) in March 2019.
The Military Chamber of the Supreme Court has increased to almost six years in prison ― five years, 11 months and 15 days ― the sentence imposed on Sergeant Saúl Antonio Guil Pérez, who on March 25, 2019 shot and killed the legionnaire Alejandro Jiménez Cruz, 21, during exercises at the Agost shooting range (Alicante). In addition, he has convicted two of his superiors for trying to cover up what happened: Captain Antonio Cabello, responsible for guaranteeing the safety of the exercise, has been sentenced to one year in prison for a crime of disobedience; and Lieutenant Pablo Fernández Sosa, three years for the crimes of disobedience and against the efficiency of the service.
Sergeant Guil was sentenced on March 29 to two years, eight months and 26 days in prison by the Territorial Military Court of Seville for the crime of reckless homicide, but the Supreme Court, at the request of the prosecutor's office and the private prosecution, has increased his sentence to four years, nine months and 15 days because it considers the latter "more appropriate and proportionate to the serious recklessness observed by the sergeant during the conducting a live-fire combat training exercise, by firing outside the fixed targets and above the positions occupied by some of the participants in the exercise." In addition, it confirms the sentence of 14 months in prison imposed on the non-commissioned officer for two crimes of abuse of authority against the legionnaire Francisco Jordi Páez, the only witness who told the investigators the truth of what happened and broke the pact of silence imposed in the company to cover up the homicide. Altogether, his sentence adds up to almost six years in prison.
However, the greatest novelty occurs in the qualification of the acts committed by the two officers who were acquitted by the court of Seville and have now been condemned by the Supreme Court. The sentence considers that the lieutenant committed a crime against the efficiency of the service, resulting in death, by allowing his subordinate, the sergeant, to extend the performance of the exercise with live fire beyond what was ordered and to fire unforeseen shots "generating a legally disapproved danger".
It also convicts the lieutenant and his superior, the captain, of a consummated crime of disobedience because, knowing the order of the Judicial Police team that no one should enter the place where the events had taken place and it was planned to carry out an ocular inspection the following day, they did not comply with it. It was the superior officer who ordered a false reconstruction of what happened on the manoeuvre field, bypassing the seal that had been placed by the Civil Guard.
Private Alejandro Jiménez Cruz.Photos courtesy
According to the proven facts, when the shooting exercise was over, Sergeant Guil shouted "enemy in front, fire in the skirt at twelve o'clock" and fired at least seven shots with his HK G36 rifle above the soldiers. One of those projectiles "hit the legionary knight Jiménez Cruz," who was about 15 meters away in a kneeling position on the ground, causing a mortal wound. The sentence explains that that same night Captain Cabello gathered the commanders of the company and told them that it had been an accident caused by a ricochet ―although, according to the expert reports, it was a "direct shot"― and that they should declare that he was at the ammunition station during the exercise. which wasn't true.
The next day, he ordered his subordinates to go to the firing range, which was sealed, before the Guardia Civil did so, to carry out a simulated reconstruction of the events; and to tell investigators that they were five meters lower than where they actually were when the fatal shot was fired, so they were placed in positions far from the real ones during the police reconstruction. Two days after the events, in a meeting with the military under his orders, he mocked the Civil Guard agents, throwing his mobile phone on the ground when he saw that they were calling him; and on April 24, in the first judicial reconstruction, he supported the attitude of Sergeant Guil, who was intimidating the only soldier who told the truth of what had happened – "Leave him, he wants to be the bride at all the weddings!" he said to the non-commissioned officer – until he was expelled by the judge. In addition, he submitted to his superior a report on the circumstances surrounding the death of the legionary, full of falsehoods.
The Supreme Court has not only increased the penalties, but has also increased the compensation to be paid to the parents of the deceased legionnaire from the 208,000 euros set by the court of Seville to 250,000 (125,000 for each) and has ratified the civil liability of the insurer (which must compensate each parent with 75,000 euros), as well as the subsidiary responsibility of the State. It has also increased from 600 to 3,000 euros the civil liability of the sergeant for two crimes of abuse of authority against the legionnaire who told the truth of what happened and whom he humiliated in public with insults such as "coward" and "faggot".
The sentence has a dissenting opinion of the president of the Military Chamber, Jacobo Barja de Quiroga, who considers that Sergeant Guil committed a crime of intentional homicide and not reckless, because "he knew the concrete danger (not the abstract one implied by the handling of a weapon such as the one he carried) that he generated with his action." The magistrate calls it surprising that the possible commission of a crime of homicide by omission by the captain was not raised, who, despite the fact that he was the director of the live-fire combat training exercise, the security officer and the data control officer, was not present at the scene when the events occurred. "His position as guarantor should have been examined, as well as the wilful omission of his duties, as he was not in the place he should have been, as it appears in the facts declared proven," he concludes.
Sergeant Guil is the only one who will be expelled from the Army, since the sentence imposed by the Supreme Court on Captain Cabello and Lieutenant Fernandez Sosa does not imply the loss of their military employment. In the sentence initially handed down by the Territorial Court of Seville, not even the former lost his status as a member of the Armed Forces.
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