The National Court Prosecutor’s Office has requested five years and seven months in prison for the six defendants accused of allegedly creating a structure to systematically organize nearly 120 tributes to former ETA prisoners (known as ongi etorri) between 2016 and 2020. The public ministry has already filed its indictment against the six defendants: former ETA members Antonio López Ruiz, alias Kubati, Carlos Sáez de Eguilaz, Kai, and Felipe San Epifanio, Pipe; Haymar Altuna and Oihana Garmendia from Sortu; and Oihana San Vicente from the Kalera Kalera movement. The indictment accuses them of constituting and leading a criminal organization, as well as humiliating the victims and glorifying terrorism.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office’s written indictment, the Kalera Kalera organization led by the defendants organized repeated and systematic ongi etorris and other tribute events for members of the terrorist group ETA upon their release from prison, return to Spain, or death between 2016 and 2020. These events, which praised ETA members, consistently humiliated the victims and had a negative psychological impact on them, causing feelings of anger, injustice, humiliation, and abandonment, particularly for victims in the Basque Country. The Prosecutor’s Office argues that these tributes resulted in a prolonged and humiliating revictimization of ETA victims, interfering with their daily lives and psychological recovery.
In addition to the prison sentences, the prosecutor is also seeking the confiscation of the assets used for these illegal activities and the permanent closure of the KaleraInfo magazine, the Kalerakalera website, and the social media profiles used for these purposes, including seven Facebook profiles, five Twitter accounts, and four YouTube channels. This action by the public ministry follows the decision by Judge Manuel García-Castellón, who, in April, processed the six suspects, charging them with humiliating ETA victims and glorifying terrorism. The judge concluded that Kubati and Garmendia, as members of the Sortu Prisoners’ Commission, conspired with the other defendants to organize over a hundred tributes to ETA former prisoners systematically and systematically through the Kalera Kalera dynamics.
The prosecutor adds that the defendants established strict rules concerning which prisoners would receive tributes and how the honors would be carried out, with only prisoners who remained disciplined within the collective of prisoners being honored. Those ETA prisoners who had renounced violence and those who had dissociated from the EPPK collective were not honored. The Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) and the Dignity and Justice collective, acting as popular accusers in the case, have also presented their requests for prison sentences. The AVT is seeking nine years in prison for the six defendants, while Dignity and Justice are requesting eight years and eight months of imprisonment.
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