The National Court has determined that the alleged responsibility of several members of the leadership of ETA in it kidnapping and murder of the councilor of PP in Ermua (Vizcaya) Miguel Ángel Blanco in July 1997 it prescribed and agreed file the case for three of them.
This Monday he did it regarding the former head of the terrorist group Soledad Iparraguirre, Anbotoand this Friday he did the same for Mikel Albisu, Mikel Antza, and Ignacio Gracia Arregi, Iñaki de Rentería. The fourth section of the Criminal Court shares the criteria of its defense and the Prosecutor’s Office and estimates that the facts are statute-barred because they were proceeded against in 2022, almost 25 years after the crime occurred. attemptand the statute of limitations, remember, is two decades.
Still a former ETA chief remains prosecuted, José Javier Arizcuren Ruiz, Kantaurisince the judge agreed to sit him on the bench in 2016, years before the judicial procedure of the other three former leaders began following a complaint from the Dignity and Justice victims’ association. The statute of limitations for the three former leaders closes the way for them to be tried for the attack on the young mayor, although this association has announced that will appeal the resolutions before the Supreme Court.
Both Dignity and Justice, as well as the PP, the Association of Victims of Terrorism and the Villacisneros Foundation maintained at the hearing that the events were not statute-barred at the time when Organic Law 5/2010 of June 22 was approved, which declares the imprescriptibility of terrorism crimes resulting in death.
However, in its order this Friday, the court reiterates the same arguments that it put forward on Monday regarding Anboto and establishes that it must rely on “the established in criminal law and jurisprudence who interprets it to avoid the dire consequences that the call caused Parot doctrine which was later revoked by the European Court of Human Rights“.
The Chamber rejects “the de facto imprescriptibility” that would be reached if it admits the thesis of the popular accusations and clarifies that “prescription does not represent a modification on the punishability of the conduct, only on its prosecubility.” He therefore estimates the resources of the former ETA leaders because, “otherwise, the principles of legality, legal certainty and non-retroactivity would be violated of unfavorable sanctioning norms”
