National Audience
Txapote gets 60 years for murder of José Javier Múgica
eitb.com
11/16/2011
The High Court found the former military chief of ETA guilty of ordering the 2001assassination of the UPN councillor, as well as belonging to a terrorist organization and possession of explosives.
Txapote (c) and others on trial in Madrid. Photo: EITB
The Spanish High Court (National Audience) has ordered that ex-ETA military chief Francisco García Gaztelu, aka 'Txapote', should service sixty years in prison for his role in the assassination of UPN councilor José Javier Múgica in Leitza (Navarre) in 2001.
The court also convicted 'Txapote' of the crimes of membership to a terrorist organisation, in a leadership capacity, murder, possession of explosives and causing terrorist destruction.
Fellow ETA member Juan Carlos Besance was convicted of the same crimes and ordered to serve 58 years in prison. Meanwhile, Andoni Otegi and Oscar Celaraín were both ordered to serve 50 years each in addition to paying 500,000 Euros worth of compensation to Múgica’s widow.
The original trial had to be repeated after Judge Angela Murillo was accidentally heard via an open microphone calling the defendants "cabrones" and accusing them of laughing.
At the end of the subsequently court case, Otegi stated that it had been the intention of "nobody" to laugh "at the widow’s suffering," while he criticized Murillo for being a "liar".
The court found that, in order to end the life of Councillor Múgica, Otegi and Celarain place a three-kilo car-bomb under his vehicle, while Besance waited in another car ready to make a getaway.
At approximately 09:45am on July 14th 2001, Múgica started up his vehicle which set off the bomb device, ending his life almost instantaneously.
Txapote had previously been ordered to service a total of 105 years for other assassinations, including those of Miguel Angel Blanco and Gregorio Ordóñez.