Judge Manuel García-Castellón, head of the Central Investigating Court number 6, has ordered the reopening of the investigation into the ETA terrorist attack in Santa Pola, which occurred on August 4, 2002, in which two people were murdered; Among them, a six-year-old girl. They were Cecilio Gallego Alaminos, 57 years old, and the minor Silvia Martínez Santiago. It also caused more than 50 injuries.
For the car-bomb attack, which exploded near the Guardia Civil barracks, two ETA members — Óscar Celarain and Andoni Otegi Eraso — were sentenced as perpetrators to 843 years in prison for 2 crimes of murder, 51 crimes of attempted murder and another of terrorist acts.
But the judge, now, is processing a further complaint from asociación de víctimas Dignidad y Justicia directed against the ETA leadership.
According to the document, the Court orders a report from the Information Headquarters of the Guardia Civil and the General Information Commissioner of the National Police “about how much data is in its possession relating” to the leadership of the terrorist group with this attack.
García-Castellón bases the reopening of the proceedings on the disovery of “new elements that are directly linked to the facts that led to the initiation of criminal proceedings.” “In the present case, that link or relationship is obvious,” he said.
The asociación de víctimas Dignidad y Justicia dirigida, chaired by Daniel Portero, has opened a new legal avenue with which to target the leaders of the whole gang for the murders and attacks committed under their direction, as possible instigators and co-responsible for the crimes —by their “mediate authorship”, indicates the association— , having ordered them and/or selected the objectives.
Several orders by García-Castellón and other judges of the National Court confirm the hierarchy of ETA and the dominance of the leadership, called zubas, over the rest of the organisation.
The lawyer for the association, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Arias, is also the author of the lawsuit that led to the investigation of the ETA leadership in 2000 for the murder of Judge Queriol Lombardero and the reopening of the case for the death of Miguel Ángel Blanco. Also, from which he initiated the investigation of former ETA chiefs for the attack on Terminal 4 of Madrid’s Barajas airport in 2006.
