A plaque on the ground commemorates the Basque leader of the PP Gregorio Ordóñez in front of the La Cepa bar in San Sebastián, where he was assassinated on January 25, 1995. Juan Herrero (EFE)
Two members of ETA have testified in recent months before the Civil Guard and later before National Court Judge Alejandro Abascal on condition of protected witnesses, according to multiple sources close to the investigation. These are two former members of the terrorist organization’s command, who have therefore started working together to provide evidence against the members of the gang’s former leadership. Their testimonies have already been used in the investigations launched into the PP’s attack on Gregorio Ordóñez, deputy mayor of San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa), who was shot in the neck in January 1995. This case has been reopened in recent months, trying to determine the alleged involvement of at least five former ETA leaders in the decision to commit the crime: Ignacio de Gracia Arregi, aka Iñaki de Rentería; Jose Javier Arizcuren Ruiz, Txapote; Mikel Albisu, Antza; Julian Achurra, Potato; and Juan Luis Aguirre Lete, Isuntza.
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The two members of the band, which broke up in May 2018, have provided information on the internal workings of the organization, as confirmed by the same sources. Both first testified before officials from the Guardia Civil information service, which opened the case on February 3, 2023. And on March 31, they confirmed that testimony before Judge Abascal, who confirmed their status as protected witnesses (baptized as TP 2/2023 and TP 3/2023). In addition, the judge took further measures that day to prevent his identification: his testimonies are not included in the summaries in the usual video format, but a transcript is made to hide his image and voice.
According to these sources, the two collaborators explained before the agents and the judge “the structure, workings and composition” of the gang’s leadership — dubbed Zuba in their internal jargon — and their relationship to the commandos. Two types of targets were set for the terrorists, the two witnesses agreed. On the one hand, the so-called “permanents” against whom they could attack without having to obtain management approval. This group included, for example, members of the Guardia Civil, the National Police and the military.
The second set of targets required a green light from ETA leaders to take action against them. Among them were politicians like Gregorio Ordóñez, judges, Ertzainas and journalists. The researchers situate the distinction between two types of targets described by the protected witnesses in the strategy that ETA approved in the 1990s when it decided to extend its terrorist actions to politicians, based on the Oldartzen paper, approved by Herri Batasuna in 1994 that advocated the “socialization of suffering”. A whole plan of “destabilization” and “persistent, indiscriminate and sustained terror” aimed at “fomenting a climate of threat,” as Judge Abascal himself defined in another reissued synopsis: the synopsis charged with the assassination was opened by Jesús María Pedrosa. PP councilor in Durango (Bizkaia), shot dead by ETA in June 2000.
In their statements, the two ETA members also identified the leaders of the gang, whom they integrated during the time they were part of the commando – one in the 1980s and the second between 1993 and 2001 when he was arrested in Domes who gave them the orders.
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The sources consulted indicate that requests have already been made to include the statements of these two protected witnesses in other summaries examining the organization’s successive leaderships. According to EL PAÍS, in recent months the National Court has reopened eight cases against the Zuba, highlighting 23 members of the terrorist group’s successive leadership: including other key figures such as María Soledad Iparraguirre, Anboto; Jose Javier Arizcuren Ruiz, Kantauri; Javier García Gaztelu, Txapote; Ainhoa Mugica, Olga, and Juan Antonio Olarra, Jokin.
The move by these two former ETA members, whose identities have been kept secret due to the extraordinary collaboration, reinforces the very avenue opened up by the National Court to try to put the former leaders of the gang on the bench for the crimes committed his subordinates. Investigators believe his word could be crucial in the cases, adding a new element to the allegations for prosecution. The investigating judges, who came across the former ETA leaders’ strict pact of silence, have so far hardly had access to the secret service reports prepared by the security forces.
According to a letter from the Dignidad y Justicia (DyJ) victims’ association to the National Court, which this newspaper had access to, the two protected witnesses engaged in “armed actions” while they were members of ETA, for which they have already been convicted. As this document points out, it was this integration that allowed them to “know the role of members of management”. […] in making decisions, directing, directing and authorizing the conduct of specific armed actions”.
The case of Gregorio Ordóñez
Mikel Antza goes to court to testify in December 2021 in the killing of Gregorio Ordóñez. JAVIER HERNÁNDEZ
The case against ETA’s leadership for the murder of Gregorio Ordóñez began in 2015, when Judge Santiago Pedraz dismissed the complaint lodged by Consuelo Ordóñez, the PP politician’s sister, against five ETA members involved at the time of the attack Editing had allowed from the so-called executive committee of the band: Iñaki de Rentería, Txapote, Mikel Antza, Pototo and Isuntza. The judge relied on a Civil Guard report that provided “reliable and credible evidence of the involvement of the accused in the decision to kill” the city council: ETA acted with “a hierarchy based on strict discipline” in which their leadership “takes all the leadership” works in such a way that there is nothing that this leadership does not control, encourage or direct.”
Abascal gave the investigation new impetus in December 2021 when he summoned Antza as a witness, whose passport he confiscated when he believed his relationship to the murder of the popular ex-councillor was “reliable and plausible”. Later he also called Iñaki de Rentería to question him. According to the sources of the investigation, while there is still some investigation to be done, the matter is nearing completion.
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