Madrid
Scientific police chief admits changing Boric Acid report
By h.b.
Jun 10, 2008 - 8:51 PM

The chief of the Scientific Police Toxicology Laboratory, Francisco Ramírez, speaking in court in Madrid today, took all blame away from the Chief Commissioner, Miguel Ángel Santano, in the alleged altering of a police report which linked boric acid to one of the accused in the Madrid Train Bombings case.

Speaking to Section 15 of the Madrid court, Ramírez said that he was the one who changed the contents of the report which had been previously prepared by the technician Manuel Escribano and two others. The original report made the observation that the same substance, Boric Acid, had been found in 2001 in an ETA flat.

Ramírez said that he did not talk about the change with the Commissioner, and that he had never received any instruction to remove any references to ETA from the report. He claimed it was however part of his job description to change reports which, as in this case, ‘lacked scientific rigour’ and ‘were absurd’.

He now faces a possible four to six year prison sentence for falsifying the document, while a total of four policemen face charges in the case.

The police report, and a leak about it being altered, was then used by sections of the Spanish media after the Madrid train bombings in 2002 as part of the conspiracy theory of an ETA link and involvement to the attacks. The court case continues.