Spain:Government accused of organising GAL
01 January 1995
The Spanish socialist government, under Prime Minister Felipe Gonzales, is facing a crisis over the scandal caused by the confession of two police officers - José Amedo and Michael Domínguez - found guilty in 1991 of involvement in the parapolice terrorist activities of the GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación: Antiterrorist Liberation Groups). Felipe Gonzales and the Interior Minister, Juan Alberto Belloch, rejected in parliament the idea that GAL had been organised by the government and funded by the fondos reservados ("Reserved funds": secret resources of the government used for "special purposes", mainly in security matters).
At the end of 1994 Amedo and Domínguez - who were by then on day release, only going to prison to sleep there - went to the newspaper El Mundo with their new revelations. Later they made the same allegations in court. On 19 December judge Baltasar Garzón of the Audiencia Nacional (the special court dealing with proceedings related to terrorism and organised crime) put on trial and remanded in custody several former top police officers. Julián Sancritobal, Civil Governor of the province of Bizkaia, and Director of Security of the State (number three in the Ministry of the Interior) from 1983 to 1986, and two others close to him during this period, the Commissioners Francisco Alvarez (who was Chief-Commander of the police of Bilbo and Chief of Special Operations) and Miguel Planchuelo (former chief of information for the police in Bilbo) were imprisoned and two other Commissioners, Julio Hierro and Francisco Saiz were released with their bail set very high.
The judge accused them of organising and directing the kidnapping in 1983 of the French citizen Segundo Marey who they confused with an ETA leader. Marey was kidnapped, held for 10 days then released carrying a communique from GAL threatening members of ETA and French interests. Two men who took part in this kidnapping - the French mercenaries M Talbi and J P Echalier - were arrested and sentenced to prison in 1989 in France. A third man, P Sánchez, the leader of the group, was arrested during the hunt for the kidnappers and died in prison in strange circumstances. The testimony given by Ameto and Domínguez before the Spanish Audiencia Nacional confirmed and amplified the revelations formerly made by Talbi: Marey had been kidnapped in error and handed over at the French-Spanish border to Amedo and other Spanish police officers - they held him until he was set free. Amedo and Domínguez named all those involved in the operation - all of whom have now been prosecuted - and confirmed the handwritten originals of the communiques. They also revealed that one option that was considered was to kill Marey and bury his body in quicklime.
The GAL
The kidnapping of Marey was the fist action for which GAL claimed responsibility. But independent observers agree that the first GAL victims were in fact two young Spanish-Basque refugees who were close to ETA. José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala disappeared on 16 October 1983 in Baiona (France) and their bodies were never found. Two days later four Spanish police officers were arrested by the French gendarmerie when they tried to abduct another Basque refugee, J M Larretxea. The Spanish government has recognised its part in this deed and Commissioner Alvarez, recently imprisoned by judge Garzón, admitted he was responsible for the operation which he defined as "humanitarian".
The GAL continued their activities until 24 July 1987 the day of the last attack they claimed: J C Garc Goena, a young Basque man who had refused to do military service and had no connection with ETA died when his car exploded with a planted bomb in Hendaia. Amedo and Domínguez were acquitted for lack of proof when charged with this attack despite evidence from a former girlfriend of Amedo that she had seen him manufacturing a bomb.
Between December 1983 and February 1986 the GAL murdered more than two<