Killing of Lasa and Zabala

Demonstration in remembrance of Jose Antonio Lasa and Jose Ignacio Zabala in 2008

The murder of Lasa and Zabala was one of the first acts carried out by the GAL, a state sponsored death squad,[1][2] Basques José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala were kidnapped, tortured and executed in 1983.

This action was organized by a paramilitary group called GAL which subsequent trials found to have been established by figures within the PSOE government.[3] Alleged ETA militants Joxean Lasa and Joxi Zabala, while getting into a friend's car, were kidnapped by non-uniformed members of the Spanish police in Bayonne[4] (Lapurdi-Northern Basque Country). They were secretly taken to San Sebastián, and locked up in a house property of the government always in Spanish Police's (Guardia Civil) hands. For a long time, these two men from the municipality of Tolosa, were cruelly tortured.[5] The organizers of the operation, provided they complied with the objectives of extracting information, ordered the murder of Lasa and Zabala. In order to accomplish this, the hostages were transferred to Alicante. There, they were forced to dig their own graves, and then, they were shot dead.[6] Finally, the executors covered the dead bodies with quicklime to accelerate their decomposition, and eliminate or minimize any evidence of the crime.[7][8][9] Lasa and Zabala affair was one of the very few cases of dirty war accepted by the Spanish court. Prison sentences were very long, but all the persons involved in the crime were released a few years later.

Trial and Sentence

Enrique Rodríguez Galindo, General of the Guardia Civil (Spanish Police) stationed in Inchaurrondo, Angel Vaquero, lieutenant colonel in the same barracks, and Julen Elgorriaga the then civil governor of Gipuzkoa were found guilty. In total they were sentenced to 365 years in prison, but after serving some years in prison (5 in the case of General Galindo) were eventually granted a pardon by the government.[10][11]

In popular culture

Pablo Malo directed the 2014 film Lasa eta Zabala about this case.

References

  1. ↑ "Spain's state-sponsored death squads". BBC News. 29 July 1998. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  2. ↑ Wilkinson, Isambard (2 March 2002). "Payback for Eta in the Pays Basque". The Daily Telegraph (London).
  3. ↑ "Ex-minister jailed in 'dirty war' scandal". BBC News. 29 July 1998. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  4. ↑ La cal viva no enterró la guerra sucia Gara, October 15th, 2008
  5. ↑ Lasa y Zabala estuvieron secuestrados en un palacio del Ministerio del Interior en San Sebastián El País, July 30, 1995
  6. ↑ Estrasburgo convalida el fallo del 'caso Lasa-Zabala' El País, 3 November 2010
  7. ↑ Los forenses de San Sebastián recaban datos de las familias de Lasa y Zabala El País, March 31, 1995
  8. ↑ Un policía de Alicante, actuando por su cuenta, logró la identificación de los cadáveres de Lasa y Zabala El País, March 22, 1995
  9. ↑ La segunda autopsia no ofrece ninguna duda El País, March 22, 1995
  10. ↑ Los apellidos de la ley Gara, March 4, 2012
  11. ↑ ¡Vivan Galindo, Vera, Barrionuevo, Amedo...! ¡Vivan! Gara, August 28, 2009
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