The National Court agrees to continue investigating the ETA leadership for the murder of Judge Querol

Access to what was requested by the Prosecutor's Office, which recalls that "the processing of a series of proceedings" is pending

MADRID, 21 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz has agreed to continue investigating the leadership of the terrorist organization ETA for the murder of Judge Francisco Querol on October 30, 2000 in Madrid due to the explosion of a car bomb.

In a ruling this Wednesday, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 5 agrees to what was requested by the Prosecutor's Office, which considered it necessary to extend the investigation "since the case is pending processing of a series of diligences".

It was last December when Pedraz filed a Dignity and Justice complaint that seeks to clarify the attack, in which, in addition to Querol, who was the target, his driver, Armando Medina, lost his life; the national police officer Jesús Escudero, and an EMT driver named Jesús Sánchez. Another 30 people were injured.

The judge agreed in a car to take statements from almost a dozen former ETA leaders, including María Soledad Iparraguirre, alias 'Anboto'; Javier García, 'Txapote', and Ignacio Miguel Gracia, 'Iñaki de Rentería', for the murder of Querol, who was 69 years old.

In the same resolution, Pedraz ordered that the declaration of all the defendants be practiced, that is, of the members of the ZUBA or Executive Committee of the terrorist group at that time.

Dignity and Justice points in its complaint to the then head of the Madrid Command, Gorka Palacios, as well as 'Iñaki de Rentería', 'Txapote', 'Anboto' and Juan Carlos Iglesias, 'Gadafi'; Juan Antonio Olarra, 'Jokin'; Ainhoa ​​Mugica, 'Olga'; Asier Oyarzabal, 'Baltza'; Mikel Albisu, 'Mikel Antza'; Vicente Goicoechea, 'Willy', and, lastly, Ramón Sagarzazu, 'Ramontxo'.

In addition, acceding to the requests of Dignity and Justice and with the support of the Prosecutor's Office, the investigating judge demanded that both the National Police and the Civil Guard inform, based on the data they possess, of "the name-to-name composition of the entire command structure of ETA, intermediate and superior to ZUBA itself or the Executive Committee at the time of the events (...), specifying the different apparatuses in which each of the defendants was integrated" at that time.

Pedraz expressed his "special interest in the military, political and logistical apparatus or apparatus through which, regardless of its name, effective coverage and support would have been given to the Madrid Command, enabling an effective clandestine presence and its criminal operation."

Specifically, the judge of the National High Court intends to find out who was involved in "the achievement and successful clandestine introduction to Madrid of the large quantity of explosives from the car bomb that would be detonated on October 30."

"This with additional expansion of the specific functions of the defendant (Gorka) Palacios Alday, as responsible, and of any other type as command of the Madrid Command on the ground," he specified, also requesting the list of "ups and downs" of this command. between 1999 and 2000.

He was also interested in the order to learn about the "'modus operandi' of ETA's internal management and decision-making mechanisms in its ZUBA, and in relation to the criteria for the supply of weapons and materials", to determine how they were transmitted the orders and instructions from the leadership to the commandos and the "logistic operation" on the explosives.

Likewise, it asked the General Information Commissioner to examine the stamps related to ETA delivered by France "in order to determine if there is a documentary trace of the organic meeting held between the ETA leaders and the members of the command that was prior to the assassination of the Judge José Francisco de Querol".