The National Court investigates whether five Bildu councilors have not paid their sentences for civil liability

2023-06-21 17:41:08

The National Court will determine if five EH Bildu councilors convicted of terrorism still have pending payment of compensation for civil liability. At the request of Dignidad y Justicia (DyJ), the Court’s Enforcement Service has examined the criminal history of some twenty mayors of the Abertzale formation to determine if they have faced these payments and the result of these inquiries, as stated in a ordering procedure, is that the sentences to five of them did include those compensations that now it is necessary to determine if they have been satisfied or not.

This is Miren Aranzazu carrera, who has accumulated four sentences for crimes of murder, illegal detention, robbery and havoc; Jose Angel Viguri; Gorka Betolaza, convicted of transporting incendiary substances and damages; Juan Carlos Arriaga, convicted of terrorist murder; and Iker Isiegas, who adds a conviction for depositing explosives.

Miren Aranzazu Carrera – councilor of the Gipuzkoan town of Amezketa since 2019, was sentenced in 1983 by the National Court to ten years in prison for covering up the murder of Enrique Cuesta in San Sebastián on March 26, 1982. In addition, he adds other sentences (all from the 1980s) six months for collaboration with an armed gang, twelve years for the murder of Jose Maria Latiegui, another twelve years as an accomplice in the murder of José María Félix Latiegui and four years in prison for a crime of havoc

Attack against the Llodio barracks

As for José Ángel Viguri, a councilor elected by the municipality of Salvatierra (Álava), he was sentenced in 1990 to 14 years in prison for a crime of collaboration with ETA (for hiding members of the terrorist organization in his farmhouse) and one year then to 51 years in prison for the terrorist attack against the Llodio Civil Guard barracks in 1988 in which the civil guards José Granados and Félix Plaza were injured.

Another of the ETA members who accumulate sentences for civil liability is Gorka Betolaza, elected councilor in Barrundia (Álava), who was sentenced in 2007 to six years in prison for belonging to a terrorist organization. Former leader of SEGI (which was outlawed for being ETA’s quarry), he was also sentenced in 2009 to four years in prison for attacking several bank branches in Vitoria with explosive devices and Molotov cocktails in 2002.

Juan Carlos Arriaga (one of the seven ETA members convicted of blood crimes that Bildu had on his lists on 28-M who announced that they would not take up their posts), elected councilor in the Navarrese municipality of Berrioplano (he was already elected councilor in 2015 ), was sentenced in 1989 by the National Court to 29 years in prison as a necessary collaborator in the murder of Commander Jesús Alcocer on April 13, 1984 in Pamplona, ​​and the subsequent explosion of a device in the vehicle used in the escape after the attack, that caused the death of agents Tomás Palacín and José Visiedo when the policemen were examining the vehicle in which the explosive was placed.

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Finally, Iker Isiegas, a councilor elected by the Basaburua municipality (Navarra) in the 28-M elections, was sentenced by the National Court in 2005 to three years in prison for possession of explosives as a necessary cooperator for the accidental explosion , on December 28, 1999, of an artifact that he was transporting in a vehicle, together with Ibai Ayensa (sentenced to 31 years in prison for the crimes of terrorist attack, illegal association, deposit of weapons, possession of explosives, attack against authority and injuries), which they planned to use to commit an attack on a bank.

The National Court has reported these facts to the State Attorney’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior and the Office for Victims of Terrorism so that they can forward the information they have on the status of payment of these compensations to determine if they have already paid them or are paying them with regular contributions. The interior expressly demands the “list of collection procedures opened through administrative channels” against these five convicted of terrorism to claim the amounts paid in their case by the State as civil liability.