Spain Papers Review - Thursday December 4 2008
The latest ETA killing dominates all the papers in Spain this morning.





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Solbes asks the Spanish banks to be more generous to families and businesses.

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Deputy Prime Minister tells ex Police Chief that you cannot throw stones and then hide your hand
By h.b. - Mar 31, 2007 - 10:53 AM

Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, after today's cabinet meeting - Photo EFE

Agustín Díaz de Mera has refused to tell the National Court how he knows about an alleged report linking ETA to the Madrid train bombings.

The Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, speaking to the press after Friday’s cabinet meeting, had harsh criticism for the ex Director General of the Police, now a PP Euro MP, Agustín Díaz de Mera.

On Thursday he refused to tell the National Court who it was who had told him about a police report which had allegedly linked ETA to the Madrid Train Bombings. This despite the fact that he had previously talked freely about the existence and contents of the alleged report on the COPE radio station, and even claimed that the report had been vetoed by the Socialist Government.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that you cannot throw a stone and then hide your hand.
‘If Señor Díaz de Mera has some information, any information, which can help to give details of the terrible attack on March 11th 2004, then he has the inexcusable obligation to give that information to the court’, she said. She reminded the ex Police Chief that collaborating with the judiciary is a constitutional obligation.

The Partido Popular leader, Mariano Rajoy, has distanced himself from some in his party, noticeably Esperanza Aguirre, Eduardo Zaplana and Angel Acebes all of whom still defend ETA involvement, by also calling on the ex Police Chief to collaborate with the court, saying it was a basic requirement of democracy.

His party leader’s comments did not stop Eduardo Zaplana telling the press today that he had telephoned Diáz de Mera to ‘give him a hug, and all my regard and affection’. He added that nobody in the PP doubts the honour of the Euro MP.

The right wing Association of Terrorism Victims AVT also says they remain convinced that the details of the alleged report linking ETA to March 11th will one day come to light.
The Director General of the Police and Civil Guard, Joan Mesquida, commented that ‘all citizens have to collaborate with justice’, adding that ‘the PP have repeatedly said that you have to collaborate with justice, and therefore an important member of the PP has also to collaborate’.

The Socialists think the PP Euro MP is at the heart of all the conspiracy allegations of ETA involvement in the bombings which he started talking about publicly in July 2004. They consider simply that he is lying.

THE END OF THE CONSPIRACY THEORY

El Pais on Saturday claimed that all the police chiefs who served with Agustín Díaz de Mera, when Angel Acebes was the Minister for the Interior under José María Aznar, have denied that any link between ETA and the Islamists was ever found by the police. The paper says that those who have since left the force have no news from colleagues that such a report even ever existed.

The only report that is known about is one ordered by the General Commissioner for Information, Telesforo Rubio, which was set up to investigate how much truth there was in the conspiracy theories of ETA involvement being broadcast in certain parts of the media. That report ruled out the possibility of any ETA involvement.

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