The necessary documentation to study it has not arrived in time for the Board of Prosecutors of the Chamber on Friday
MADRID, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Chamber Prosecutors Board convened for next Friday will not address the debate to establish a position on the prescription or not of the kidnapping and murder in 1997 of the ‘popular’ councilor Miguel Ángel Blanco, because it still does not have all the necessary documentation to rule on respect, part of which must be sent by France.
The new Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, undertook on July 28, during his appearance in the Justice Commission of the Congress of Deputies to defend his appointment, to take the matter to the Chamber Prosecutors Board, after that differences of opinion arose between the then prosecutor of the case, Vicente González Mota, and his colleagues from the National Court (AN).
For this reason, it was expected that the matter would be addressed in the first Board of Prosecutors of the Chamber convened by García Ortiz, but it does not appear on the agenda for next Friday. According to the tax sources consulted by Europa Press, it is because the Public Ministry has not yet managed to collect all the relevant documentation of the case, so in these conditions it understands that it is not possible to hold a deep debate.
The same sources detail that, among other things, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is pending receipt of documentation from France –on the sentences handed down and the time spent in prison by the former ETA chiefs now being investigated for the death of the young Ermua councilor–.
Thus, the aforementioned sources explain that the debate will be postponed until all the material necessary to assess the specific case is available, something for which they cannot venture a date given that –they underline– it largely depends on France .
The legal debate was evident on July 21, during the judicial declaration of the former heads of ETA Miguel Albisu Iriarte, alias ‘Mikel Antza’, and María Soledad Iparraguirre, ‘Anboto’, before the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 , Manuel García Castellón, because a different prosecutor attended than the one who was handling the case at the time.
Legal sources told Europa Press that, during said procedure, prosecutor Pedro Rubira did not request any precautionary measure for ‘Mikel Antza’ and ‘Anboto’ but did speak to point to the possible prescription of the crimes under investigation, while He was in favor of reopening the case because the victims, he said, have the right to know the truth.
The fact that Rubira came to replace González Mota suggested that there could have been a shift in the position of the Public Prosecutor’s Office aimed at estimating the prescription of crimes for the former ETA leadership.
The chief prosecutor of the AN, Jesús Alonso, issued a statement days later in which he asserted that “the criteria for action remain the same as those that existed at the time of the reopening” of the case, thus denying “having received “guidelines”, ” least of a political nature”, to appreciate prescription.
Faced with the criterion established in the AN Prosecutor’s Office, which is to assess the statute of limitations when the pertinent periods have elapsed since the commission of the crime, unless they were interrupted by an accusation, González Mota explained to his colleagues the possibility of exploring other ways. that would allow him to avoid the extinction of criminal responsibility, but he did not have his support, so he asked to be relieved of the case, according to what this news agency learned.
Despite everything, the aforementioned sources emphasized that, given the type of procedure in which we find ourselves, it has been possible to reopen the summary to investigate the facts in depth. It will be once the investigations are exhausted, in the intermediate phase, when the issue of prescription must be resolved.
They also pointed out that in the ‘Miguel Ángel Blanco case’ the criminal responsibility would not have expired for the four former ETA chiefs appointed by the Central Court of Instruction Number 6. The case could continue with respect to José Javier Arizcuren, ‘Kantauri’, against whom A new European Arrest and Surrender Order (OEDE) has been issued in order to be investigated for these events.
The reason is that the then judge of the National High Court Eloy Velasco already reopened in 2016 the summary of the “Miguel Ángel Blanco case” to charge “Kantauri” as inducer of the crime. This judicial decision would have interrupted the statute of limitations just one year before the 20 years that would have extinguished his possible criminal responsibility expired.
At the moment, the head of said court, Manuel García Castellón, keeps ‘Mikel Antza’ and ‘Anboto’ charged in this case and has assessed ex officio the statute of limitations regarding Ignacio Miguel Gracia, ‘Iñaki de Rentería’. The Prosecutor’s Office, the Popular Party and Dignity and Justice have already appealed so that the investigation is also directed against the latter.
