Former ETA leader gets 30 years for ordering the murder of Andalucía's Chief Prosecutor
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By m.p. - Jan 3, 2008 - 3:01 PM
Luis Portero was shot by two ETA terrorists who were waiting outside his home in Granada in October 2000

A former leading member of the ETA terrorist organisation has been sentenced to 30 years for ordering the murder of the Chief Prosecutor at Andalucía’s highest court, the Andalucía High Court of Justice, who was killed in October 2000. Luis Portero was shot in the entrance to his apartment block in Granada City on 9th October that year, and died in hospital only a few hours later.

The National Court in Madrid ruled it proved that Juan Antonio Olarra Guridi, as the leader of ETA’s Andalucía commando at the time, ordered two other commando members, Harriet Iragi and Jon Igor Solana, back from France to carry out the attack on Portero and on other targets. The court said he provided them with photographs of Luis Portero, details of his car, and information on his working hours and address. They were waiting for him when he arrived back in his block and shot him in the back of the head.

Both Iragi and Solana have already been sentenced for the murder.

The sentence also includes 900,000 € to be paid in compensation to the Chief Prosecutor’s widow and his four children.

Juan Antonio Olarra is currently serving time in France and was temporarily handed over to authorities in Spain last July to stand trial for terrorist attacks carried out in Spain. He was sentenced to 1,253 years in prison last October for a car bomb attack in the Vallecas area of Madrid in 1995 which killed six people and injured another 44.

He’s also taken the stand in the National Court for ordering another car bomb attack in Roses, Gerona province, in March 2001. Santos Santamaría Avedaño, a member of the Basque police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, died in the blast.

Olarra is believed to have taken over leadership of ETA’s military operation from Xabier García Gaztelu, alias Txapote, who was arrested in February 2001.

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