The group Lendakaris Muertos fires its guitarist due to a sexual assault investigation

The Navarrese punk group Lendakaris Muertos has removed one of its guitarists, Iván Carmona, for being immersed in a “judicial process that accuses him of sexual assault.” “Iván, guitarist of Lendakaris Muertos, will not be part of our group starting today. This morning we learned of a judicial process that accuses him of minor sexual assault. For this reason, from the band and unanimously, we have decided to dispense with him until the process is completed and the facts are clarified,” the band reports from their Instagram.

“We reaffirm that we do not accept any type of abusive behavior on the part of the members of the band or the team,” concludes the statement made public this Tuesday.

Although the group was created in 2004, Carmona did not join it until 2022 after Joxemi, Ska-P’s guitarist, left the band to focus on his group’s tour. Joxemi joined the band in 2016 to replace Asier, one of the creators of Lendakaris Muertos, after his retirement. Thus, the young guitarist Iván Carmona, former guitarist of The Guilty Brigade, enters the group. Later, in 2023, Asier returns to the group and the band has two guitarists, becoming a quintet.

The news of the investigation comes two months after more than 150 Basque musicians joined together to denounce the words of Gatibu singer Alex Sardui in an interview published on September 20 in this newspaper in which he stated that “in the musical union “There has been no discrimination.” In a writing, the artists, among them well-known names such as Izaro Andres, Olatz Salvador, Aiora Renteria or Inés Osinaga, criticized that “there is no one more blind than he who does not want to see.” “We have been fed up with these types of situations for a long time. Saying that there has been no discrimination in the world of music is very serious, because in addition to leaving aside the reality of many women, it minimizes the obstacles that we must face. The data refute this and make it clear that discrimination is a real problem,” they said in a statement.