The Prosecutor's Office now recognizes that there was a Bildu candidate disqualified until 2028 and communicates it to the Electoral Board

The National Court Prosecutor's Office has informed the Electoral Board that an EH Bildu candidate who was convicted of terrorism has not yet completed her disqualification.

The Public Ministry has acted after Dignity and Justice denounced that, contrary to what the Prosecutor's Office had maintained until now, the candidate Sara Majarenas Ibarreta will not serve until 2028 the sentence of absolute disqualification that prevents her from running for elections. Majarenas is running for councilor in the Gipuzkoan town of Astigarraga.

On May 17, the Prosecutor's Office filed an initial complaint from the association referring to 43 convicted of terrorism who had joined the lists of EH Bildu. Dignity and Justice asked that it be verified if they had complied with the disqualifications. The Prosecutor's Office directed by Jesús Alonso responded that nothing prevented them from attending and that, “for a rigorous analysis of the complaint”, they had collected “the criminal history sheets of the convicted persons to whom express reference is made in the complaint document “.

“From the examination of this documentation,” said the chief prosecutor, “there is no concurrence of any circumstance that allows us to glimpse that we are facing an assumption of ineligibility of those provided for in the General Electoral Regime Law”.

In the new document presented yesterday before the Court and the Electoral Board, the association indicates that Majarenas was sentenced in September 2007 for belonging to ETA (eight years in prison), forgery in an official document (two years and seven months) and illegal possession arms (another two years and seven months).

In addition, that sentence of the Third Criminal Section closed with a sentence of “absolute disqualification for a time greater than 10 years than the duration of the sentences” in prison.. According to the association's calculations, this prohibition to be a candidate will not be fulfilled until 2028.

Legal sources specify that Majarenas is disabled until April 4 of that year. The ETA member was released in April 2018 after fully serving 13 years and two months of sentence. From that day on, he began to serve the absolute disqualification.

In its latest letter, the association led by Daniel Portero asks the San Sebastián Area Electoral Board to demand from the Court the official calculation of the expiration of the disqualification and, once proven ineligible, annul his candidacy. The request extends to examine in detail the possible disqualification of another 42 EH Bildu candidates who, according to the association, were also convicted of terrorism and could be disqualified.

After the brief of Dignity and Justice, the Third Section of the Hearing, which is the one that handed down the sentence, has informed the Prosecutor's Office of the situation, which in turn has informed the San Sebastián Zone Electoral Board. The Prosecutor's Office affirms that it has not known of this disqualification until this Thursday, alluding to the fact that the liquidation of the disqualification sentence had not been carried out when it examined the reported cases..

It adds that the file decree of the chief prosecutor and the prosecutor lieutenant is still valid, since there are no indications of crime and that the legality of the candidacies is the responsibility of the electoral boards.. The decree added that there was nothing to prevent any of the candidacies.

Bildu has also reacted to what happened, according to Josean Izarra. The coalition comes to recognize the disqualification of its candidate, interpreting that Majarenas did not know that she was disabled. Candidates must submit a letter indicating that nothing prevents them from being on the lists

“Beyond the fact that the resident of Astigarraga, Sara Majarenas, was unaware of the extreme of that 'absolute disqualification' for passive suffrage, it is the electoral board that made the proclamation of the candidacy without appreciating any irregularity ex officio, and without it being denounced either. by representatives of other candidacies”, affirms the coalition.

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