The judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno has prosecuted the former military chief of ETA Mikel Kabikoitz Carrera Sarobe , alias ‘Ata’ , and three other collaborators for the attack in which a civil guard died in Leitzo (Navarra), in 2002, after the explosion of a trap device, hidden near a banner used as a decoy.
In a car of last December 10, to which Efe has had access this Monday, the magistrate also proposes to try Miren Itxaso Zaldúa , Jon Lizarribar and Ruben Gelbentzu for facts that could constitute alleged crimes of belonging to an armed gang terrorist murder resulting in death, four crimes of attempted terrorist murder and possession of explosives.
These three defendants have appeared this Monday before the National Court by videoconference and have denied their participation in the events and their membership in ETA at the time of the attack, legal sources have reported.
Currently, Carrera Sarobe is serving a sentence in France and has also been convicted in Spain, where he is also prosecuted in causes such as the murder of the president of the PP of Aragon Manuel Giménez Abad , in 2001, for which he entered prison a few months ago provisional Itxaso Zaldúa, who was also imprisoned in France.
Jon Lizarribar was also convicted by a Paris court in 2007 for considering him a member of the ETA logistics apparatus and then, in 2013, he spent time in provisional prison in Spain together with Ruben Gelbentzu for his alleged participation in four attacks committed in 2002.
The events for which the four have now been prosecuted date back to September 24, 2002, when, according to the order, an agent stationed in Malaga who was on leave in Leitza (Navarra) saw on the road that connects the town with Berastegui (Guipúzoa) a banner with terms alluding to ETA and threats to the Civil Guard such as ” Guardia Civil Bertan Hill ” (“Civil Guard dies here”).
This banner was a decoy that was part of an explosive device placed inside a metal pot or pan, inside a backpack, and that was located on a side of the road.
Upon receiving the agent’s complaint, four colleagues – among them the victim of the attack, Corporal Juan Carlos Beiro – went to the scene and, when one of them went to check if the banner was “an explosive device-trap”, a explosion of “sudden form” that caused the death of the corporal and wounds to the other agents. ETA claimed responsibility for the attack five days later.
The judge has found evidence of criminality against the four defendants after receiving a report from the Civil Guard on July 30 on the identification of ETA members linked to this attack.
This report explains that, according to the investigation, Carrera Sarobe and Zaldúa were considered members of the illegal Basajaun command , which in turn coordinated “four legal commandos in 2002,” including Izarbeltz , who allegedly made up Lizarribar and Gelbentzu.
According to the order, the Basajaun command planned “to carry out a special attack” codenamed “cazuela”, allegedly motivated by the arrest of those then responsible for the ETA military apparatus Jon Olarra and Ainhoa Múgica on September 16, 2002, and with the aim of “giving a coup of authority”.
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To commit the investigated attack, the Basajaun command “would have arranged” for the two members of the Izarbeltz command to place the “decoy-banner”, while the other two would be in charge of activating it.
Key to the investigation has also been a document found after the arrest in 2002 of the former ETA chief Juan Ibón Fernández , alias ‘Susper’ , attributed for the most part to the former leader of the gang Ainhoa Múgica Goñi with data on weapons and assigned material to the Basajaun command in 2002.
