Spanish National Court to charge grave vandals with terrorism

Spanish National Court to charge grave vandals with terrorism
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By m.p. - Jan 28, 2007 - 10:00 PM

Former Prime Minister, Jos� Mar�a Aznar, at the grave of ETA victim, the Partido Popular councillor Gregorio Ord��ez. Photo � EFE.

There are 8 minors amongst the 11 arrested for destroying floral tributes laid on the grave of a Partido Popular councillor murdered by ETA

The National Court has decided that eleven people arrested for vandalising the grave of Partido Popular councillor, Gregorio Ordóñez, on Saturday are to be charged with terrorist offences.

Ordóñez was murdered by the ETA terrorist organisation in 1995.

They were arrested for destroying floral tributes which were laid down on his grave in a homage ceremony which took place on Friday, and which was attended by the former Partido Popular Prime Minister, José María Aznar.

Amongst the others who attended Friday’s ceremony was the President of the Partido Popular in the Basque Country, María San Gil, who was at the table with Ordóñez in the restaurant where he was shot.

Eight of the eleven people who were taken into custody after the incident on Saturday are underage.

The majority were arrested on Saturday at the cemetery in the Egia area of San Sebastián, after a police patrol was sent out to investigate violence in the street nearby. It later turned out that the group of youngsters responsible for setting up a barricade of rubbish containers were creating a diversion for the vandals at the graveside. The other three arrests took place on Sunday.

Carmelo Barrio, the PP general secretary in the Basque Country, issued a statement on Sunday condemning the attack as ‘cowardly and miserable.’ He accused the outlawed Batasuna party, ETA’s political wing, of directing and manipulating those who were involved.

ETA terrorist Javier García Gaztelu, otherwise known as ‘Txapote,’ was found guilty of Ordóñez’s murder last month, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The National Court said in its ruling that while it could not be definitively proved that it was Txapote who fired the shot which killed the San Sebastián councillor on 23rd January 1995, the fact was ‘irrevelant’ under criminal law: they said it had been proved that he was involved in the ‘conception, the decision and its implementation.’

The Attorney General, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, has meanwhile spoken out on the case of the ETA hunger striker, José Ignacio de Juana Chaos.

He said the Penal Court decision last week to turn down a prosecution application for house arrest does not mean a setback for his department.

The court ruled that de Juana Chaos should remain in prison and be force-fed for a third time.

Conde-Pumpido said in an interview published in La Vanguardia on Sunday that the justice system should be allowed to do its work in peace.

He said politicians should neither applaud the court rulings they may favour, nor discredit those which they do not.

PP leader Mariano Rajoy welcomed last week’s ruling from the Penal Court, describing it as ‘unity against terrorism.’ He said the decision went against the Attorney General and the government.

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