The ETA member Asier Eceiza acknowledges before the AN having participated in the murder of a PSOE councilor in 2002

The prosecutor lowers his prison request from 28 to 19 years by pointing out that he was an accomplice

MADRID, 19 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

ETA member Asier Eceiza, who has been on trial since Monday at the National Court for his participation in the attack that killed socialist councilor Juan Priede in Orio in 2002, has acknowledged his participation in the events in court.

The Fiscal Ministry has been interested in modifying its conclusions and, although it maintains the account of the facts, it changes its level of participation in the alleged crimes from necessary cooperator to accomplice to murder, for which reason it lowers the sentence request from 28 to 19 years from jail.

One of the two 'liberated' ETA members who participated in the assassination, Unai Bilbao, and another of his collaborators, Pedro Cano, have also confirmed that Eceiza collaborated in it by transporting ETA members in a vehicle after the attack was committed.

According to the account of the Public Ministry, Eceiza would have carried out "surveillance and information on the schedules, movements and customs of the PSOE councilor" at the request of the Bakartxo commando, the person responsible for the attack.

Thus, and according to the letter, Eceiza would have studied "the different routes of entry and exit from Orio in order to facilitate the execution of the projected attack and the subsequent escape" of the murderers.

Eceiza himself would have waited for the material authors of the death of the socialist in the tunnel located on the Bilbao-Behobia highway, where they arrived after abandoning the car with which they fled from the crime scene. Eceiza, with his private vehicle, would have transferred the murderers to the town of Usurbil, where they would have separated.

From there, the two convicted of the death of the PSOE councilor would have moved on two bicycles that they had prepared to an apartment where they hid together with two other convicted in the framework of this same case.

During the hearing, all the police officers and civil guards involved in the investigation, as well as those in charge of various intelligence procedures, have confirmed their expert opinions and have asserted that in the 'cantadas' seized in December 2002, after the arrest of Ibon Fernández de Iradi, alias 'Susper', in France, detailed information appeared on that specific attack and the involvement of Eceiza, who together with Cano formed the 'Tupi' talde that organically depended on the Bakartxo command.

Unai Bilbao, one of the two released who attacked the councilor, explained in court that although he did not remember the role that Eceiza played, "it was in the background" and helped them. In fact, he has acknowledged that when they fled -- after firing three shots at Priede -- they did so in a stolen vehicle driven by Pedro Cano.

With that vehicle, with which they flee at full speed, they end up bursting a wheel, but they reach the point where Eceiza was waiting for them with another car --although Bilbao has said that he does not remember if the car the defendant was driving was his or not--. Bilbao has explained that he took them "to a mountainous area", where he left them.

Pedro Cano, alias 'Pitu', explained that Eceiza worked with him at the Orona elevator company --in fact, one of the keys to the expert reports was the entry and exit records to work--, and that on the day He picked them up after the attack -- those released and himself -- to take them back to their homes after having punctured the wheel.

The account of what happened has been repeated with nuances by each of the agents who participated in the investigation. The clearest has been one of the agents who drafted the attack, who explained that Eceiza participated in surveillance and action work with 'Pitu', and that on the day of the murder he picked him up from work and went to the point where who had remained with the 'liberated'.

Eceiza leaves him there, and Cano goes in a vehicle with those who committed the attack -- "with a visor and sunglasses" -- to the bar where it took place. There 'Pitu' stays with the 306's engine running and after the shots are fired they leave at full speed until they leave the car and are picked up by Eceiza who takes the liberated to the Usurbil picnic area, while Pitu is left in his car. House.

In addition, it has corroborated that according to the notes of the elevator company, both 'Pitu' and Eceiza were out of the question at the time of the murder. "Instead of entering Eceiza at 2:00 p.m. --his turn-- he did so at 3:00 p.m.," he recalled.

Another of the Civil Guard officials explained before the court that he was in charge of compiling the evidence against the ETA member and that it was based above all on what was seized in France, of those known as 'self-criticism' --documents prepared by ETA members since jail for the organization to analyze what could have gone wrong for them to be detained-- to which they give "credibility", and with the entry and exit markings of Orona. "We see that sufficient evidence to corroborate the statements of the detainees and that they corroborate that Eceiza participates in the events," he added.

The trial will continue this Tuesday with the final reports and the last word, at which time it will be seen for sentencing.

It should be remembered that in 2020 the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court acquitted Eceiza of a double attack on hotels in Alicante and Benidorm in July 2003 that caused 14 injuries, two of them seriously, considering that it was not there was sufficient evidence to convict him.