Mikel Carrera and Miren Itxaso Zaldúa, before the National Court this Monday.FERNANDO VILLAR (EFE)
More than 22 years after the assassination of Manuel Giménez Abad, President of the PP of Aragon, the National Court this Monday held the first trial of the two alleged perpetrators of the crime: ETA members Mikel Carrera aka Ata and Miren Zaldúa , Sahatsa . The two terrorists have denied their involvement in the May 2001 attack in Zaragoza, when the popular terrorist was on his way to a football match with his then 17-year-old son. The public prosecutor’s office is asking for 30 years in prison and a five-year entry ban for the Aragonese city.
The bloodthirsty Carrera, who was the military leader in the gang’s final stages, is currently serving a life sentence in France for the 2007 killing of two Civil Guardsmen in Capbreton; and a French police officer, Jean-Serge Nerin, in 2010. Zaldúa served a prison sentence in France from 2005 to 2017 for his membership in the terrorist organization; and in July 2020, after returning to Spain, she was arrested in Hernani (Gipuzkoa) for her involvement in the assassination of the President of the PP of Aragon. Since then, the ETA member has been in temporary custody.
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The bloody attack was carried out on May 6, 2001. Giménez Abad, regional deputy and president of the regional PP, was on his way to La Romareda stadium at around 18:30. He wanted to watch a football match in Zaragoza with the youngest of his two sons, Borja, 17 years old. Then, on Calle de las Cortes de Aragón, on Vía de la Princesa, a terrorist approached them from behind and shot the politician at point-blank range. “He continued to shoot while he fell and was already on the ground,” reports the prosecutor’s office. “The victim suffered the impact of three 9mm Parabellum projectiles fired from an HS semi-automatic pistol. One of them entered his body through the right lumbar region, another through the right buttock region, and the last through the right occipital region. [El popular] He died instantly from traumatic and hemorrhagic shock.
Health workers cover the body of politician Manuel Giménez Abad, President of the Aragon PP, who was assassinated by ETA on May 6, 2011. Julio Foster
An ETA member assured her partner. And both fled the place in opposite directions. Based on the police investigation, prosecutors believe that Carrera pulled the trigger that day and that Zaldúa was with him. They denied their involvement in the crime this Monday and assured the court that they were not in the Aragonese city that day. Zaldúa, who has insisted that he was not part of the Basajaun command, defended himself as follows: “I don’t remember all of ETA’s actions, but I could remember this one because it had an impact on me.” Of all ETA’s actions, this one seemed particularly hard to me. I remember hearing the news of the attack on the car radio and there was a child there. And I remember we were in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Usurbil (Gipuzkoa) going to the cinema.”
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—Did you take part in these events? – His lawyer has also asked Mikel Carrera.
-No None. I haven’t been to Zaragoza. I’m absolutely sure where it wasn’t: namely in Zaragoza […] Neither I nor the Basajaun command have anything to do with this armed action,” replied the ETA member, who explained that on May 6, 2001 he attended one of the great celebrations of the Basque Ikastolas, Herri Urrats, near Iparralde (France) participated. .
The murder of Giménez Abad caused enormous excitement in society. According to the city council, more than 350,000 people demonstrated on the streets of Zaragoza the following day in opposition to this attack and against terrorism. The 53-year-old politician left behind a widow and two children (Manuel and Borja). Years later, a plaque was placed at the scene of the crime that read: “Manuel Giménez Abad was assassinated here on May 6, 2001 by the terrorist group. Zaragoza will never forget you.”
Mass demonstration in Zaragoza to reject the assassination of Manuel Giménez Abad by the terrorist group ETA.Efe
The bombing has remained unsolved for more than two decades. The synopsis ended but resumed due to a new police investigation. According to the indictments, the security forces did not link either terrorist to ETA at the time, so witnesses could not identify them. But years later, they succeeded: among them, Giménez Abad’s son, who was with him that day and always claimed to have seen the terrorist’s face. In October 2014, Borja Giménez “undoubtedly” recognized Ata in a series of 18 photos that had never been published in the media – the boy said at the time that the killer wore a red cap, from which he stuck out behind a mop of long, curly hair Hair.
Robot portrait of Giménez Abad’s killer, distributed at the time by the General Police Department.
The summary said a protected witness also identified Zaldúa years later: “His photo [tampoco] it would have been part of the still images initially shown to witnesses to the attack,” Judge Santiago Pedraz said in a resolution describing how, after Ata shot Giménez Abad, “he encountered a ‘small’ woman.” plump cheeks, black eyes’, who, despite the month of May, was dressed in dark and wore a bowler hat and a long coat”: “She gave the author of the recordings security at a certain distance.”
As two agents explained this Monday, in addition to the testimonies, the documents provided by France via ETA (such as handwritten letters signed by Sahatsa) made it possible to discover the previously unknown members of the Basajaun command years later. The investigators managed to surround Carrera and Zaldúa. In various intelligence reports from 2019 and 2020, the Guardia Civil traced the “structure, components and attacks allegedly perpetrated by ETA’s Basajaun network,” Pedraz points out.
This Monday’s session ended at around 1:30 p.m. The hearing will continue this Tuesday and it is expected, among other things, that the youngest son of the victim will testify. According to the court’s calculations, the trial ends on July 18.
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