- Hearing: Judge Pedraz prosecutes Etarra Mikel Karrera for the murder of Senator Giménez Abad in 2001
- Hemeroteca.ETA breaks into the Basque campaign by killing a PP leader
It was six o'clock in the afternoon. Manuel and his son Borja were going lightly towards the La Romareda football stadium to see his Zaragoza . It was an important match. The rivalry with Numancia , a classic for regional proximity, was great. They trusted a new victory tomorrow. But lead was going to cross his path that May 6, 2001. One was going to lose his life. The other, youth.
Manuel Giménez Abad presided over the PP of Aragon . Despite the terrorist pressure, he went without an escort. His counting son was then 17 years old. "There is no day that I will not relive everything that happened," says Borja in statements to THE WORLD, the first after, after 18 years, Justice has put face to the alleged murderer of his father.
ETAra Mikel Carrera Sarobe , aka Ata , was clear that he was going to carry out an "easy" attack, without much risk. He did so, in the open face, with the serenity of the slayer. He approached from behind and fired his gun three times at the head of the popular leader. The death was instantaneous. His son had the strength to raise his father's murderer after his face was set on fire.
«I don't forget anything, not even a detail, but I can hardly tell. It is an intimate event and I don't want to remember it. My father was killed for what he represented, for defending democracy, for betting on the rule of law in which we live, ”says Borja Giménez 18 years later.
He was the one who saw it clearer, but not the only one. On the way to the football stadium they did not walk alone and several fans witnessed the murder. Both their testimony and that of Borja himself have been the keys to clarify one of the more than 300 crimes of ETA that remain unsolved. These witnesses and the perseverance of the Civil Guard have been the pillars to shed light on one of the most shocking killings of the terrorist gang.
Despite the accuracy of the data provided by the witnesses, which allowed the elaboration of a high-precision portrait of the murderer of Giménez Abad, the agents could not find him. At that time, Ata , later head of ETA commands, was a great stranger to the Security Forces.
The dates that the case has accumulated since then attest to the complexity of such an investigation. Until October 18, 2014, the Civil Guard did not have any clues to suspect Ata and be able to show Giménez Abad photographs of the terrorist that had never been disseminated and that the son of the murdered and the other witnesses identified them without doubt.
«I knew it was going to be complicated. When in 2014 the Civil Guard summons me to show me photos, I think it is another management. He was not especially optimistic, he looked complicated. It was many years since the crime. I had a certain skepticism, ”Borja Giménez tells this newspaper.
The Information Service prepared the report 17/2015, which drew up a profile of members of ETA that could correspond with the murderer and in which it was concluded that the material author of the crime was Ata . In August 2015, the Prosecutor asked Judge Santiago Pedraz to reopen the case.
Until 2014 there were no indications that the ETA chief was the author of the murder
It was necessary to wait until October 3, 2018, another three years later, for a rogatory commission to be launched to France and a reconnaissance wheel was held with Ata , who was identified as the author of the crime.
Borja remembers the day he was in France, seeing his father's killer again, four years after the Civil Guard showed him those photos. «We had to move to Paris to do the recognition. That trip was quite complicated, very hard. I had a very bad day. Face to face again with him, although there was the crystal. There were many people in the diligence, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, officials ... Once the recognition was over I felt relief. But it is not yet complete. Until there is a firm judgment, it will not be complete and total ».
Ata was arrested in May 2010 in France when he was the head of the ETA commands. Since then he has been serving sentences in the neighboring country. The National Court prosecuted him last July for the murder of Giménez Abad and in August he was extradited to Spain, although for another case.
It was the end of a very long investigation. When ETA killed Giménez Abad in 2011, the Civil Guard "had no data on Ata ." «We did not know of its existence, we did not know of its operational level, which was already integrated into a command. We did a retrospective investigation. That is, we rebuild his bloody career. We ask ourselves: who in ETA were nobody in those years? Ata was already arrested as head of ETA, but what had he done before to achieve his gallons? », Says the Armed Institute. Thus, like ants, the agents thoroughly rebuilt Ata's life.
"I feel relief, but until there is no sentence it will not be complete," says Borja
They reviewed all the attacks committed by ETA under the personality prism and the biographical and physical data of the murderer. They looked at the crimes, the dates, their location ... And they were compared to how old Ata was when each and every one of the unsolved murders was committed.
Ata took the reins of ETA in 2009, so the attacks were reviewed until that year. All robot portraits were analyzed and scrutinized if they could correspond to the ETA leader. And they were similar with one of the elaborated ones with the data that the son of Giménez Abad contributed in his day.
The researchers obtained a photo of Ata from the time when the attack that had never been published was carried out and showed it to Borja. The identification was full.
Borja felt a great relief in Paris, the day he recognized Ata, but not definitively. "Until there is a firm sentence, our relief will not be complete and total."
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