Posted on the roof of a building in the Iraqi city of Najaf, rifle in hand and surrounded by the enemy. A grenade hits the facade of the building and explodes; another sinks into the concrete three meters away, but miraculously does not burst. This is the hell that a Spanish sniper experienced for thirteen days – and corresponding nights – in 2004 and which has haunted him for two decades. Today, a court of the National Court awarded him an extraordinary pension due to the trauma suffered.
The ordeal of this Green Beret was not limited to this fence. While performing security, observation, and objective elimination duties on this rooftop, he was ordered to shoot down a Macdi Army informant he had located. Once executed, the target’s body was left lying 350 meters from the position and stayed there for 24 hours; an entire day during which this corporal first had to contemplate the corpse of the enemy.
The image of the inert body of the insurgent lying on the ground was recorded in the retina of this soldier and, associated with the tension suffered during those days, generated post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression, which caused suicidal thoughts and led him to try to commit suicide. The fact that, the day after the shooting, the commander responsible for the order began to question the decision also contributed to his feelings of guilt.
Today, the Central Contentious-Administrative Court Number 3 of the National Court recognized the permanent disability of this first permanent corporal of the Spanish Army, caused by the loss of psychophysical conditions. This sentence, to which ‘ABC’ had to, rescinds a previous resolution of the Ministry of Defense who considered this condition unrelated to service, which directly affects the pension.
The decision of Margarita Robles’ service was based on the report of the Medical Commission of Experts which determined that the Spanish soldier suffered from anxiety-depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress of mixed etiology, c ‘that is to say unrelated to his acts of service. However, Justice established last September that The pathology arises from the situation experienced in Iraq and not from previous vulnerability factors.
“Our client demonstrated psychiatric resistance greater than that of any person, not only normal, but also with a very great absence of vulnerability. This is evident from his service in special units and in war zones, where he performed with complete satisfaction. That he is a completely normal person does not mean that, when faced with conflict, he cannot develop. a psychiatric pathology that he be reactive to the war situation to which he was exposed”, explains to ‘ABC’ the sniper’s lawyer, Antonio Suárez-Valdés, expert in military law.
And he emphasizes: “He remained on a roof for days without being able to move, he was bombed, he had to end the lives of third parties and this generated a pathology which, of course, He is reactive to this conflictas determined by the psychiatrists who treated him.
With this resolution of the National Court, which recognizes his disability and grants him the extraordinary pension, the soldier – having more than 20 years of service – you will receive 200% of your regulatory assets. This is double what would correspond to him if his pathology was considered not to come from the service.
