The AN sends the former heads of ETA 'Txapote' and 'Amaia' to trial for the murder of the PP councilor Manuel Zamarreño

The Villacisneros Foundation considers it "magnificent news" and asks to continue pursuing the gang's crimes

MADRID, 29 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court has agreed to send the former heads of the ETA terrorist group Javier García Gaztelu, alias 'Txapote', and Irantzu Gallastegi, alias 'Amaia', to trial for the assassination with a bomb of the PP councilor in Rentería (Guipúzcoa) Manuel Zamarreño el June 25, 1998, which also caused injuries of varying degrees to an Ertzaintza escort.

As reported by the Villacisneros Foundation, the decision of the Criminal Chamber comes "after five years of legal battle." It was last 2020 when the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 2, Ismael Moreno, prosecuted 'Txapote' for considering him the material author of the death of the 'popular'.

In the indictment of 'Txapote', the magistrate explained that both he and 'Amaia' used an "explosive-type device with radio control initiation", loaded with between one and two kilos of amosal, which would have been introduced into a bag or backpack hidden under the seat of a moped and activated with radio control.

For her part, 'Amaia' was prosecuted in May of this year, after the French Justice agreed to her delivery. Judge Moreno was unable to issue an indictment in parallel with that of 'Txapote' because, in 2020, he was still awaiting a response from the French authorities.

It should be remembered that both 'Txapote' and his partner, 'Amaia', have been sentenced by the National High Court for their participation as members of the 'Donosti commando', in the kidnapping and crime of the PP councilor in Ermua in July 1997, a criminal action framed in a blackmail to the State of ETA to bring ETA prisoners closer to Basque prisons and that was perpetrated days after the release of the prison official José Antonio Ortega Lara.

The list of fatalities of 'Txapote' is completed by Alfonso Morcillo Calero, Mariano de Juan Santamaría, José Ignacio Iruretagoyena, José Luis López de la Calle, Jorge Díez Elorza, José Javier Múgica Astibia, Irene Fernández Perera, José Ángel de Jesús Encinas, Enrique Nieto Viyella and Máximo Casado Carrera; also for the attempted murder of Ramón Rabanera and José Ramón Recalde, as well as an attack on a nightclub.

Gallastegui Sodupe, for her part, is also sentenced to an accumulated sentence of 30 years. In her case, she entered prison on June 14, 2005 for the crimes of attack and murder, possession of explosives, havoc and terrorist fires. She is scheduled to serve three-quarters of her sentence in November 2024 for killing Miguel Ángel Blanco, Fernando Múgica Herzog and José Ignacio Iruretagoyena.

For the Villacisneros Foundation, the opening of an oral trial "is magnificent news" that "reaffirms the need for the rule of law to never lower its guard in defense of the law and in the prosecution of crime."

It is a milestone, they celebrate, that comes "24 years after the murder of Manuel Zamarreño in Rentería, thanks to the tenacity of his daughter Naiara and the legal assistance" of the foundation itself. "The victims of terrorism permanently claim some demands that we share: memory, truth, dignity and justice. Without justice there is no reparation for the damage caused," they maintain.

In this context, the foundation has made a "public appeal" to make "at the disposal of all the victims of ETA terrorism so that, overcoming the pain of remembering the murder of their relatives, they trust in Justice and try to avoid a impunity that only favors criminals".