More than 22 years after the murder of Manuel Giménez Abad, president of the PP of Aragón, the National Court held this Monday the first session of the trial against the two alleged perpetrators of the crime: the ETA members Mikel Carrera, alias tieand Miren Zaldúa, Sahatsa. The two terrorists have denied his involvement in the attack perpetrated in May 2001 in Zaragoza, when the popular was walking to a soccer match with his youngest son, who was 17 years old at the time. The Prosecutor’s Office requests 30 years in prison for both and a ban on approaching the Aragonese city for five years.
The bloodthirsty Carrera, who was the military chief of the gang in its last stage, is currently serving a life sentence in France for murdering two civil guards in Capbreton in 2007; and a French police officer, Jean-Serge Nérin, in 2010. Zaldúa served a sentence in France from 2005 to 2017 for his membership in the terrorist organization; and in July 2020, after returning to Spain, she was arrested in Hernani (Gipuzkoa) for her involvement in the murder of the president of the PP of Aragon. Since then, the ETA member has remained in provisional prison.
The bloody attack was perpetrated on May 6, 2001. Giménez Abad, regional deputy and president of the regional PP, was on his way to the La Romareda stadium around 6:30 p.m. He was going to see a Zaragoza soccer match with the youngest of his two sons, Borja, 17 years old. Then, on Calle de las Cortes de Aragón, at Vía de la Princesa, a terrorist approached them from behind and shot the politician point-blank from behind. “He continued shooting while he was falling and when he was already on the ground,” says the Prosecutor’s Office: “The victim suffered the impact of three 9-millimeter projectiles parabellum, fired from an HS brand semi-automatic pistol. One of them entered his body through the right lumbar region, another through the right gluteal region, and the last through the right occipital region. [El popular] died on the spot from a shock traumatic and hemorrhagic.
An ETA member gave cover to her partner. And both fled the place in opposite directions. Based on the police investigations, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that Carrera pulled the trigger that day, and that Zaldúa was with him. They have denied this Monday their participation in the crime and have assured the court that they were not in the Aragonese city that day. Zaldúa, who has insisted that he was not part of the Basajaun command, has defended himself like this: “I don’t remember all of ETA’s actions, but I did remember that one because it had an impact on me. Of all the actions of ETA, that one in particular seemed harsh to me. I remember hearing the news of the attack on the car radio and that there was a child. And I remember we were in a parking from a shopping center in Usurbil (Gipuzkoa), and that we were going to the cinema”.
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—Did you participate in these events? — His lawyer has also asked Mikel Carrera.
—No, none. She was not in Zaragoza. I am absolutely sure where she was not: which is in Zaragoza […] neither me nor him Basajaun command has nothing to do with that armed action,” replied the ETA member, who stated that on May 6, 2001, he went to one of the big festivals of the ikastolas Basques, Herri Urrats, near Iparralde (France).
The murder of Giménez Abad generated an enormous commotion in society. According to the City Council, more than 350,000 people demonstrated the following day in the streets of Zaragoza in rejection of this attack and against terrorism. The politician, who was 53 years old, left a widow and two children (Manuel and Borja). Years later, a plaque was placed at the scene of the crime that reads: “Manuel Giménez Abad was murdered here on May 6, 2001 by the terrorist group. Zaragoza will never forget you”.
The bombing has remained unsolved for more than two decades. The summary came to a close, but it was reopened due to the new police inquiries. According to the indictments, the security forces did not link either of the two terrorists with ETA at the time of the crime, so the witnesses could not identify them. However, years later they were able to do it: among them, the son of Giménez Abad who was with him that day, who always assured that he had seen the face of the terrorist. In October 2014, Borja Giménez “without a doubt” recognized Ata in a series of 18 photographs that had never been published in the media —the boy recounted in his day that the murderer wore a red cap, from which he stood out from behind a shock of long curly hair.
The summary states that a protected witness also identified Zaldúa years later: “His photograph [tampoco] it would have formed part of the stills that were shown to the witnesses of the attack at first”, explains judge Santiago Pedraz in a resolution, where he describes how Ata, after shooting Giménez Abad, “came across a ‘short’ woman, of plump cheeks, black eyes’, who was dressed in a dark color and with a bowler hat and long coat despite the month of May”: “She was giving security at a certain distance to the author of the shots”.
As two agents explained this Monday, in addition to the witness statements, the documents provided by France about ETA (such as handwritten letters signed by Sahatsa) also allowed the members of the group to be discovered years later. Basajaun command, unknown until then. The investigators thus managed to surround Carrera and Zaldúa. In various intelligence reports from 2019 and 2020, the Civil Guard traced the “structure, components and attacks allegedly committed by the Basajaun network of ETA,” Pedraz stresses.
This Monday’s session ended around 1:30 p.m. The oral hearing will continue this Tuesday and, among others, it is expected that the youngest son of the victim will testify. According to court calculations, the trial will end on July 18.
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