“The executive committee [the leadership of ETA] gave us a free pass to assassinate civil guards at funerals”. These words are a fragment of the testimony given by two repentant ETA members to the Civil Guard.
They spoke as protected witnesses in the framework of the investigation that is investigating the heads of the terrorist gang for the murder of the PP councilor and deputy mayor in San Sebastián Gregorio Ordóñez, which occurred in 1995.
These two ex-terrorists testified before agents of the Information Headquarters of the Civil Guard (UCE-1). As EL ESPAÑOL has learned, one of them reported that the ETA leadership allowed the militants to attack during burials or tributes to Benemérita agents killed by the band.
Furthermore, the two protected witnesses detailed that, in order to assassinate a military or police officer, they did not require the authorization of the leadership.. But they did need it to attack politicians or journalists.
TP-01 and TP-02 —those are their names to keep their identity hidden— pointed to 12 gang leaders as the ones who selected the targets for the attacks.
[ETA celebrated the “positive balance” of the year that killed Gregorio Ordóñez: “The enemy, offside”]
Specifically, they targeted Josu Ternera (alias of José Antonio Urrutikoetxea), Santiago Arróspide (Santi Potros), Eugenio Etxebeste Arizkuren (Antxon), José Javier Zabaleta (Baldo), Francisco Múgica Garmendia (Pakito), Domingo Iturbe (Txomin), Mikel Albisu Iriarte (Mikel Antza), Ignacio de Gracia Arregi (Iñaki de Rentería), José Javier Arizcuren Ruiz (Kantauri), Javier García Gaztelu (Txapote), Julián Achurra Egurola (Pototo) and María Soledad Iparraguirre (Anboto).
Josu Ternera is provisionally released with precautionary measures in France. In January 2024, he will sit on the bench of the accused of the National Court, in the trial for his alleged participation in the attack committed in 1987 against the Civil Guard barracks in Zaragoza.
The statements of the two protected witnesses have already been incorporated into at least two indictments that are being investigated in the National Court: the one opened for the death of Gregorio Ordóñez and the one for the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco.. Both were councilors of the Popular Party in the Basque Country at the end of the 90s.
The National Court has already sentenced the perpetrators of both attacks. But it keeps two investigations open against the members of the leadership of the terrorist group for their supposed decision-making capacity to select the objectives and authorize the attacks; as a kind of intellectual authors.
Gregorio Ordóñez, in a file image.
The victims' association Dignidad y Justicia has asked the National Court to incorporate these testimonies into all the cases open against the leadership of ETA. There are eight in total. Among them, the murder of judge Querol (year 2000), the attack against the T-4 of Barajas (in which Josu Ternera appears as investigated), the attack against a Civil Guard barracks in Santa Pola (Alicante) , committed on August 4, 2002…
For its part, as EL ESPAÑOL has learned, the Prosecutor's Office will study it “case by case”. Prosecutor sources indicate that, first, the Public Ministry must hear a statement from the two repentant ETA members, in order to decide in which cases their testimony is relevant.