The French authorities have agreed to temporarily deliver to Spain the former ETA chiefs Mikel Carrera Sarobe ('Ata') and Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina ('Txeroki'), who are serving their sentences in that country and will arrive on August 30 and 2 September, respectively, to be tried for pending murders in Spain. Around the same dates, the delivery of the historic María Soledad Iparraguirre, aka 'Anboto', is also scheduled to sit on the bench.

As Vozpopuli has advanced and has confirmed Europa Press in legal sources, it is a temporary delivery for a period of one month that in the case of 'ATA' will entail his direct entry to prison, as specified in the order of the Chamber of the Criminal Court of the National Court that orders its transfer to Soto del Real.

This delivery is framed in the summary by the explosives van intercepted in Zamora in 2010 and whose destination was Portugal. The driver, Garikoitz García Arrieta, fled using the agents' vehicle, but was later arrested in Portugal and sentenced to 37 years in jail. Also fell Iratxe Yáñez Ortiz de Barrón, sentenced to 22 years, and driving a shuttle car on the way.

'ATA' was not judged for that 'mission' in which the prosecution places him as responsible. Last October, when the procedure entered its final stretch on the verge of opening an oral trial, its defense alleged in the National Court a series of defects in order to avoid the sentence of 10 years in prison requested by the Prosecutor for that. The trial will be held in mid-September.

However, this same month of July has been prosecuted in the National Court for the murder perpetrated in May 2001 of the president of the PP of Aragon Manuel Giménez Abad, whose son and witness of the crime identified Carrera Sarobe in a reconnaissance wheel held on last year.

As for 'Txeroki', the delivery from France is to make it available to the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court to judge him for the murder of Judge José María Lidón on November 7, 2001, according to They inform legal sources.

Lidón was shot in his garage in Getxo (Biscay) in the presence of a wife and their two children, who were then 23 and 21 years old. It was these relatives who recognized him as the author of the shooting.

The trial has not yet been noted, although it is expected next. According to the same sources, France has authorized the temporary delivery to last a maximum of 4 months, although extension may be requested.

However, it has more pending causes. Spain has been claiming France for years to allow the transfer to be able to judge him as the intellectual responsible for the attack on the T4 in Barajas that in 2006 killed two people and ended the truce of the terrorist band. It has not yet been agreed.

There is the circumstance that the 'mentor' of Txeroki, the historical leader of ETA María Soledad Iparraguirre, aka 'Anboto', will be delivered to Spain by France around the same dates, on September 4, according to the same sources.

In his case, the objective is that he sits on the bench to answer for one of the 14 murders charged to him, that of the commander of the Army of the Land Luciano Cortizo Alonso by means of a bomb in his car on December 22, 1995 in León .

The one of 'Anboto', however, is not a temporary delivery, given that the historic ETA leader ends this August to serve the sentence for which she is being held in France. He will enter prison in Spain awaiting trial for the murder of Cortizo and then he will have to face the rest of the pending cases.

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  • France
  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • ETA
  • National audience
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