Three military chiefs face charges in Yak-42 case

National
Three military chiefs face charges in Yak-42 case
By h.b. - Jul 9, 2008 - 6:57 AM

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The charges are linked to the mistakes made in the identification of the bodies of the victims of the military plane crash.

The National Court is to hear the cases against three military chiefs who are accused of falsifying the data regarding the identity of 30 bodies from the Yak 42 military transport plane tragedy.

Medical General Vicente Navarro, and the officials José Ramírez and Miguel Sáez have been granted bail set at two million € by judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska at the start of the oral hearing, with the money having to be deposited in 24 hours and to be used in the concept of compensation to the families of those who died.
General Vicente Navarro also faces five years in prison while the other two officials face four and a half years.

The prosecutor alleges that the three drew up the list of those who died arbitrarily, only turning to DNA evidence later.

The Yakovlev-42 plane came down on May 26 2003 at Trabzon in Turkey when bringing back Spanish soldiers from a mission in Afghanistan. There were 62 dead.