The judge investigating the Santa Pola attack asks France for permission to interrogate a former ETA chief

The instructor issues an investigation order considering the declaration of the ETA member, imprisoned in the Gallic country, "essential"

MADRID, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National High Court that is investigating six former heads of ETA for the attack that the organization perpetrated on August 4, 2002 in Santa Pola (Alicante) has issued a European investigation order to take a statement by videoconference from former leader Félix Ignacio Esparza, alias 'Navarro'.

In a car last Thursday, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, addresses France when he considers the interrogation of Esparza "essential", who is being held in the Center Lannemezan penitentiary, in the Gallic country.

The order, specifically, is addressed to the Antiterrorist Prosecutor of the Republic of France. The magistrate explains that Esparza "will be assisted by a lawyer of his choice, who is already present in the proceedings, and who will optionally intervene by videoconference, or from the courthouse."

In this context, the instructor recalls that 'Navarro' is accused of "responsibility for omission of the attack" perpetrated against the Civil Guard headquarters in the city of Alicante, which resulted in the death of a 57-year-old man and a six-year-old girl, the daughter of an agent of the Benemérita.

Esparza was charged last July along with the other five former leaders of the terrorist group at the time of the attack: Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi, alias 'Juanvi'; Ainhoa ​​Mugica, alias 'Olga'; Mikel Albisu, alias 'Mikel Antza'; Ramón Sagarzazu, alias 'Ramontxo', and María Soledad Iparraguirre, alias 'Anboto'.

It was in March when the magistrate reopened the summary on the attack and urged the Civil Guard and the National Police to send him all the data on the members of the ETA leadership at the time of the events. The Court agreed to open preliminary proceedings after the complaint filed by the Dignity and Justice Association (DyJ) against the six heads of the terrorist group that allegedly made up the ZUBA at the time.

García Castellón received this same month a report from the Civil Guard in which the investigators directly pointed to the former chiefs under investigation, considering that they could "have avoided the outcome" by asserting the "command position they held within the terrorist organization and their extensive ability to act".

In this sense, the agents made it clear that "the decision to carry out the attack against the Santa Pola barracks could not be made by a specific or isolated member" of the Executive Committee, "but it should have required consensus and making a collegial decision by all the members".

In this specific case, in 2012 the National Court sentenced ETA members Andoni Otegi Eraso, alias 'Iosu', and Óscar Celarain Ortiz, 'Peio', both members of the Argala commando, to 843 years in prison, considering it proved "without any kind of doubt" that they were the authors of the Santa Pola attack.