The judge of the National High Court who is investigating whether the murder of the PP councilor in Ermua Miguel Ángel Blanco was ordered by the leadership of the terrorist organization ETA has summoned the former leaders of the gang Miguel Albisu Iriarte, alias ‘Mikel Antza’, and María Soledad Iparraguirre, ‘Anboto’.
In a ruling this Monday, collected by Europa Press, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, indicates at 12:00 the summons of ‘Mikel Antza’ and, at 12:15, that of ‘Anboto’ .
In this way, the instructor puts a date on some citations that he himself agreed to last Friday through a car in which, with the aim of listening to the former head of ETA José Javier Arizcuren, ‘Kantauri’, he ordered the issuance of a new European Order of Detention and Surrender against him.
In it, the magistrate also agreed to file the case for the former head of the gang Ignacio Miguel Gracia, alias ‘Iñaki de Rentería’, due to the prescription of the crimes he was accused of.
These movements in the case occur after the judge received two reports from the Ertzaintza and the Civil Guard in which the agents point to the leadership of the gang, which they hold responsible for the murder perpetrated on July 12, 1997 , considering that he could only leave the highest management body of ETA
This is a criterion that is also upheld by the judge himself, who in one of his recent orders pointed to the leadership of ETA insofar as “they did not carry out any act to end the kidnapping or the death of the victim, evidencing an unequivocal will in the production of the result.
“At no time did they attempt to avoid or impede the assassination, although they were able to do so. The terrorist action that the Donosti commando carried out could not materialize on its own initiative, but rather it was carried out following the orders and with the express authorization of their superiors, the members of the executive committee of ETA”, affirms the magistrate.
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 nine leaders of the gang at the time of the events: Ignacio Miguel Gracia Arregui, alias ‘Iñaki de Rentería’; José Javier Arizcuren, alias ‘Kantauri’; María Soledad Iparraguirre, alias ‘Anboto’; Juan Carlos Iglesias Chouzas, alias ‘Gaddafi’; Mikel Albisu, alias ‘Mikel Antza’; and Asier Oyarzabal, alias ‘Baltza’.
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”.
