The two prosecutors assigned to the case have not been able to attend due to sick leave
MADRID, 17 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The judicial statement scheduled for this Monday at the National High Court (AN) of the former head of ETA José Javier Arizcuren Ruiz, alias ‘Kantauri’, for his alleged involvement in planning the kidnapping and murder of the PP councilor Miguel Ángel Blanco has had to be suspended and set again for the next day 28 at 11:30 am because none of the prosecutors assigned to the case has been able to attend as they are both on sick leave.
The legal sources consulted by Europa Press indicate that the appearance set for 11:00 a.m. on October 17 was in any case a mere formality, since ‘Kantauri’ was expected to take advantage of the principle of specialty not to testify, given that France he did not hand him over to Spain to be investigated for these events.
‘Kantauri’, who is serving a sentence in the Pamplona I Penitentiary Center, was handed over by the neighboring country for acts other than the kidnapping and murder of the young politician from Ermua, which forced the National Court to request permission to interrogate him for this issue.
The Paris Court of Appeal rejected last June the European arrest warrant issued on February 4, 2021 by the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, considering that it was “empty of content” .
García Castellón issued that order as an extension of the one issued in 2016 by the former judge of the National Court Eloy Velasco. He made that decision after ‘Kantauri’ recalled that France had not handed him over to Spain for this reason during an investigative statement.
The same sources indicate that García Castellón agreed to issue another surrender and detention order that has not yet been resolved, which would make ‘Kantauri’s statement unfeasible unless he agreed to do so voluntarily, an extreme that is not contemplated.
It was last March when Judge García Castellón agreed to reopen the investigation into the murder of the Popular Party councilor after admitting a complaint filed by the Dignity and Justice Association (DyJ).
In its brief, the association directed its accusation against the leaders of the gang at the time of the events: ‘Kantauri’; Ignacio Miguel Gracia Arregui, ‘Iñaki de Rentería’; Juan Carlos Iglesias Chouzas, ‘Gaddafi’; Asier Oyarzabal, ‘Baltza’; Maria Soledad Iparraguirre ‘Anboto’; Miguel Gracia Arregui, ‘Mikel Antza’; Vicente Goicoechea ‘Willy’; Jokin Echevarria and Carlos Ibarguren ‘Nerves’.
The judge agreed to call ‘Kantauri’, ‘Anboto’, and ‘Mikel Antza’ as under investigation and appreciated ex officio the prescription of the crimes for ‘Iñaki de Rentería’, a decision that both the Prosecutor’s Office and the PP and DyJ have requested reverse. For their part, ‘Mikel Antza’ and ‘Anboto’ refused to testify before the magistrate.
It should be remembered that, in the case of Blanco’s murder, the First Criminal Section of the National Court already sentenced in 2006 to 50 years in prison the former ETA leader Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, ‘Txapote’, and his sentimental partner and member of ETA Irantzu Gallastegui Sodupe, ‘Amaia’, as perpetrators.
In its sentence, the court assured that both “planned and executed the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco, following the guidelines of the leadership of the terrorist organization ETA, whose most immediate objectives were the kidnapping of a PP councilor to demand in exchange for their release the approach of the prisoners of the gang to prisons in the Basque Country”.
