Former ETA official Josu Ternera released from terrorism charges in Paris – archyworldys

“A necessary decision”, according to one of his lawyers. ETA historic leader Josu Ternera was released on Wednesday 1^er September prosecutions for “Participation in a terrorist criminal association”, the Paris court considering that there was no “Element” proving the active role of this leader among the most influential of the Basque separatist organization Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA, “Basque Country and Freedom”) between 2011 and 2013.

Josu Antonio Urrutikoetxea Bengoetxea, whose real name is, was retried at his request in June, after being sentenced in his absence in 2017, while he was on the run, to eight years in prison. At 70, the one who is considered the ” grandfather “ ETA was accused of having continued to play an active role there by participating in operations, living in hiding and maintaining links with its members.

But the court ruled that the investigation had not established that Josu Ternera, between 2011 and 2013, had “Was in contact with members of ETA”, and that if he had lived in France in hiding “Under a false name”, no false papers or traces of suspicious funding or any help from ETA members had been found.

“We are relieved, satisfied, it is a necessary decision. The court put an end to a case that should never have been opened ”, reacted one of his lawyers, M^e Laurent Pasquet-Marinacce, after reading the court decision. Black jacket, graying hair and small glasses, Josu Ternera hugged his lawyer for a long time, before leaving the courtroom without making a statement.

More than sixteen years on the run

Summoned by the Spanish courts in 2002, Josu Ternera went into hiding and was arrested in May 2019, after more than sixteen years on the run, in the parking lot of a hospital in Haute-Savoie where he was going to seek treatment.

This ETA activist had been wanted since 2002 when, regional deputy of Euskal Herritarrok, a radical nationalist coalition, he went into hiding after being summoned to appear in court for his alleged role in an attack on a civil guard barracks. in Zaragoza, in northern Spain, which killed eleven people, including five children, in 1987. According to the National Hearing, a high court in Madrid, he was also wanted for his alleged involvement in the assassination, in 1980, from a Michelin executive in Spain.

Josu Ternera is considered to be the instigator of the car bomb strategy adopted by ETA in the 1980s. According to experts in the fight against terrorism, he also set up the commando “Itinerant” ETA formed of French activists, which was the organization’s deadliest. Mr. Ternera had joined ETA in the late 1960s, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and had taken refuge in France in the 1970s. Head of ETA from the late 1970s until his arrest in France in At least 1989, he ended up being dismissed from the general staff in 2006 by the most radical of the organization.

He must again face the French justice, on September 13 and 14, to answer for his membership in ETA, this time between 2002 and 2005. In this case, he was also tried and sentenced, in his case. absence in 2010 to five years in prison at first instance, then seven years on appeal. His lawyer did not wish to speak about this next hearing. ” We’ll see “, he simply said, assuring on the other hand that his client would be present.

Once these legal proceedings are completed, Josu Ternera could be handed over to Spain, the Court of Cassation having accepted in November 2020 the principle of his extradition requested by Madrid. Created in 1959 under the Spanish dictatorship of Franco, the ETA organization is accused of having killed at least 853 people during four decades of violence in the name of the independence of the Basque Country.