Dimitris Kouimtsidis
AN ETA member has been acquitted for his role in multiple attacks in the Valencian Community in 2003.
The National Court has decided to acquit Asier Eceiza of the double attack committed in July 2003 in two hotels in Alicante and Benidorm.
The attack left 14 people injured, two of them in critical condition, including one Brit, 20-year-old Ellie Carr.
The judges have come to the conclusion that there isn’t ‘sufficient evidence to prove that the accused participated in these attacks.’
However, the judges did accept that the accused was in fact a member of the terrorist organisation and that he had stayed at one of the apartments used by ETA before the attack on the Valencian coast.
No traces or biological remains have been found linking the 42-year-old with the explosives found in the house where already convicted ETA member Jon Joseba Troitino had also stayed at.
In addition, the composition of the material located there did not coincide with that of the exploded bombs.
The Prosecution had requested a 268 year prison sentence for Eceiza, who denied his participation in the attack.
According to the ETA member, he only traveled at that time to Valencia to collect information on the security measures of the hotels, which were part of the objective of the Basque separatists during the well-known ‘summer campaigns’, when the gang attacked commercial and tourist establishments during the summer.
Eceiza, originally from San Sebastian, admitted that he had stayed overnight at the apartment, but that he hadn’t seen any explosives or weapons there, claiming its function was purely logistical.
