Very high expectations were generated among the victims of terrorism when the judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón admitted the treatment in February 2022 of a complaint for Dignity and Justice which sought to put on the bench the leaders of ETA in time of the kidnapping and assassination. . by PPen Councilor Ermua Miguel Ángel Blanco. Maybe that’s where the problem started. This had its meaning. In a very hierarchical terrorist organization, the authorities had to authorize 48 hours of blackmail against the State, weapons in hand, and were able to prevent its outcome. Already at that time, doubts existed inside and outside the National Tribunal as to whether, 25 years later, the leaders could still be held responsible for this, but they were circumvented by two premises. First, Dignidad y Justicia argued that there was a gap, a possibility of considering that the events had not been prescribed because they could still be prosecuted when the Penal Code was reformed by extending the deadlines. Another, that those of ETA are crimes against humanity according to an international convention on the subject and do not expire. The judge referred this debate to the trial and focused on the indications that ETA members María Soledad Iparraguirre (Anboto), Mikel Albisu (Antza) and Ignacio Gracia Arregui (Iñaki de Rentería) were part of the leadership when, in 1997, ETA kidnapped the advisor. The investigation lasted two years, following reports from the police and the Civil Guard which recomposed the map of the terrorist organization. The three were prosecuted in April and, shortly after, they appealed with a single allegation: the facts cannot be prosecuted because almost 25 years passed between Blanco’s assassination and the complaint for Dignity and Justice and the limit provided for by the Penal Code of the time. 20 years old. This elephant has been in the room since February 2022 and it was time to get in trouble. The prosecutor’s office agreed with them. At the time, we repeated the saying “and on whom depends?” ”, but the National Court was missing. The wait suddenly turned into a mirage last week. On Monday, the responsibility of Anboto was filed and on Friday, that of Antza and Iñaki de Rentería. The principles regarding the extension of limitation periods alleged by popular accusations have proven not to be such in Spanish law, where it is established that the new criminal norms cannot be applied backwards to the detriment of the affected party and that international conventions, such as that used by the plaintiff, do not govern without first being reflected in the legal system. Not only is the one they cite not incorporated into the Penal Code, but Spain has not even signed it. To reach this conclusion, the Fourth Section used two resolutions of more than fifty pages. Free licensing. These orders were not read alone, but in a sequence of events that put the victims on notice. The new Basque PNV-PSE coalition government has signed two third degrees for ETA members for blood crimes Harriet Iragui and Luis Mariñelarena, the first of this mandate. They are signed by the Minister of Justice, a socialist, and the prosecutor will not appeal. She has also not contested 61 of the 81 granted by the Basque Country since it took charge of the prisons in October 2022 and, although the Prosecutor’s Office explains that this is due to the fact that ETA members are throw in obstacles – sorry, civil responsibilities and three quarters of the sentence paid -, the image today of the public ministry, work and grace of Pedro Sánchez, is settled with his famous rhetorical question. Along the way, Bildu announced its pact with the PSOE on citizen security. What the victims saw was an agreement with “the heirs of the institutional branch of ETA,” as AVT lawyer Carmen Ladrón de Guevara said. Difficult, he emphasizes, to explain anything in this context. Also difficult to understand.
