The defense of Captain Zúñiga, who is being prosecuted for the death of two soldiers on December 21, Muriano Hill While he was in charge of the “crossing the lake” exercise, he presented his allegations against the order of the Central Court of Togado 2 of Madrid in which he considers that there was no crime in his actions and requests leave it without effect and the dismissal of charges against six commanders prosecuted in this case.
The main reason given in this document, to which ABC has had access, is that the defendant, in addition to executing the exercise planning“East obvious and it is proven that there was a mandatory risk analysis which the order reiterates that it was not aware of.” For this part, no motivation can be found in the self-assessment that links a clearly reckless alleged type of crime with the two alleged crimes. “attempts” qualified. In this sense, he states in his allegations that “since the attempt is an intention to commit a crime that is not consummated, it is not possible to understand how this could happen in current events.”
And the defense attorney explains that “it would be as if my client had intended to be reckless but I would not have succeeded. This leaves this party in the most absolute impotence since it cannot concentrate on how to defend itself against this qualification.” In this way, the defense of Captain Zúñiga concludes that since the right of defence is affected due to the lack of motivation for this legal construction, this results in a loss of defence and therefore the nullity of this statement.
The memorandum of allegations against the accusation brought against Captain Zúñiga – which aims to put him in the dock for a crime under the Military Penal Code against the efficiency of the service – states that “he committed more than 30 measures or proposals make the exercise safer, while scrupulously respecting the provisions of the Royal Ordinances.”
According to the defense attorney, Captain Zúñiga did indeed take a series of additional security measures, such as increasing the number of instructors from the planned eight to fifteen; modifying the controls and beginner instructors by experienced; allow them more rest – which would also make the temperature more favorable; request medical assistance from an ambulance although it is a rare resource in the Brigade; order the platoon to examine sealing equipment and backpacks or do a drill before crossing the river a few days before, especially in the Gaca Pond in order to familiarize them with aquatic environments.”
Among these thirty measures that the defense of the Captain Zúñiga that “he took as a precaution”, are also that of giving the order to place the rope guide to the sergeant or the direct supervision by the captain of the placement of the rope. rope or establish a hot spot… with dry clothes and thermoses of hot milk.
Similarly, the “harvest” thermal cannonby express order, specified the day before, or given the order to lighten all superfluous weight, or even taken replacements a few days before exercises such as the “treatment of prisoners”. Regarding the expertise, the captain’s defense alleges that the temperature of 7-8 degrees Celsius that Aemet recorded this morning of December 21 “cannot at all be considered extreme cold.”
After the presentation of these measures adopted at the initiative of the captain, which were, in the opinion of this party, “with the approval and support of his hierarchy, the effective collaboration of the majority of his subordinates and taking into account the means available, the defense lawyer asks the soldier the question of whether the behavior exhibited is typical of a military command imprudent or negligent and if the qualification of the contested order is adjusted in law, this “without a doubt the imprudence and negligence of Captain Zúñiga in the planning and execution of this practice, without any of the security measures…”.
“We believe that the evidence that has been presented cannot be distorted to the point of ignoring the obvious, which is why this defense comes to the conclusion that the order can only be obtained through a biased visionsurely involuntarily, typical of the unusual speed that the second phase of this Summary had, bordering on haste,” explains this document defending the captain.
Among these comments to the judicial inquiry, the defense attorney specifies that “not standing would not necessarily have been a safety factor, but on the contrary an additional risk, since, as the manual recognizes, in any body of water there is mud or muddy areasAmong them the shores themselves, we can only agree that there was a trigger that caused a panic reaction in the peloton that the sergeant commanded.
Five soldiers passed the test
This part also firmly rejects the account of Captain Zúñiga’s behavior, insisting that “since it is not a description based on factual elements but rather a rather incomplete interpretation and fuzzy. This is a very relevant factor, which until now we have called a trigger, until a few five soldiers They performed the exercise perfectly and some (Private León) even surpassed other colleagues because they did it more easily.
Finally, the captain’s defense exercised by the lawyer Francisco Muñoz Usano “The unusual speed imposed on the second phase of the investigation, which rendered the expert evidence of very little use,” is lamentable. For all these reasons, the defense asks the Central Military Court 2 to examine the appeal and to annul the contested indictment order pronouncing the dismissal of the proceedings.
