José Antonio Urrutikoetxea Bengoetxea (born 24 December 1950), also known as Josu Urrutikoetxea and Josu Urrutikoetxea Bengoetxea, is a former member of the
Basque separatist
Basque nationalism ( eu, eusko abertzaletasuna ; es, nacionalismo vasco; french: nationalisme basque) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the poli ...
organization
ETA
Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...
. In separate trials over a number of years, he was convicted for his involvement in the 1986
Plaza República Dominicana bombing
The Plaza República Dominicana bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the armed Basque separatist group ETA in Madrid, Spain on 14 July 1986, which killed 12 people and injured another 32. The dead were all members of the Guardia Civil ...
and the 1987
Zaragoza barracks bombing, which together killed 23 people, including five children.
ETA activity
Urrutikoetxea joined ETA in 1968
and was in charge of operations in the
Biscay
Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao.
B ...
region until fleeing to France in May 1971
at which time he joined the military front of the organisation.
In July 1972, he participated in ETA meetings in Madrid. On 15 July 1972, he attacked the Orbegozo factory in
Hernani (
Guipúzcoa
Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...
), stealing approximately four million
pesetas.
On 28 July 1972, Urrutikoetxea was involved in the robbery of a van carrying foreign currency for the
Bank of Biscay in
Pasaia
Pasaia ( es, Pasajes) is a town and municipality located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community of northern Spain. It is a fishing community, commercial port and the birthplace of the famous admiral Blas de Lezo.
Pasaia l ...
(Guipúzcoa), seizing more 12,000,000 pesetas. On 6 December 1972, he participated in an attack on the Union House of Hernani.
On 21 January 1973, along with other members of ETA, Urrutikoetxea planned attacks that would use their available supply of more than 3,000 kilograms of
dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...
and various
explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...
materials. Part of those explosives were used in December 1973
to assassinate the
Prime Minister of Spain
The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government ( es, link=no, Presidente del Gobierno), is the head of government of Spain. The office was established in its current form by the Constitution of 1978 and it was first regula ...
,
Luis Carrero Blanco
Admiral-General Luis Carrero Blanco (4 March 1904 – 20 December 1973) was a Spanish Navy officer and politician. A long-time confidant and right-hand man of dictator Francisco Franco, Carrero served as the Prime Minister of Spain and i ...
.
In January 1989, Urrutikoetxea and
Herri Batasuna
Herri Batasuna (; en, Popular Unity; HB) was a far-left Basque nationalist coalition in Spain. It was founded in 1978 and defined itself as abertzale, left-wing, socialist, and supported the independence of the Greater Basque Country. It was r ...
leader Elena Beloki were arrested in
Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...
, France. The Herri Batasuna organization was later recognized as the force behind the international apparatus of ETA. Urrutikoetxea was sent to
Fresnes Prison
Fresnes Prison ('' French Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes'') is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison (''maison d'arrêt'') of about 1200 cells, a smal ...
, near Paris, and later was
extradite
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...
d to Spain, where he was freed when it was ruled that he had been wrongly convicted in France regarding his membership and financing of ETA and the other crimes of which he had been accused.
Urrutikoetxea was summoned to testify on two occasions before the
Supreme Court of Spain
The Supreme Court ('', TS'') is the highest court in the Kingdom of Spain. Originally established pursuant to Title V of the Constitution of 1812 to replace —in all matters that affected justice— the System of Councils, and currently regulat ...
, which investigated whether Urrutikoetxea had issued the order for ETA to
bomb the quarters of the
Civil Guard of
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
in 1987, killing eleven people, among them five children. On 26 October 1990, he was tried in France, found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison in France for conspiracy, use of false documents and illegal possession of weapons.
The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the National Hearing Solicitor in July 1993 sentenced Urrutikoetxea to an additional twelve years of prison for being in charge of the international apparatus of ETA from 1984 until his arrest in 1989. After serving six years in France, he was handed over to the Spanish authorities on 4 May 1996.
Judge Javier Gomez de Liaño, of Spain's ''
Audiencia Nacional
The Audiencia Nacional (; en, National Court) is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those ...
'', ordered Urrutikoetxea 's detention. That same month, he was accused of belonging to an arms depot. In June 1996, he was declared guilty of being in charge of the 1986
Plaza República Dominicana bombing
The Plaza República Dominicana bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the armed Basque separatist group ETA in Madrid, Spain on 14 July 1986, which killed 12 people and injured another 32. The dead were all members of the Guardia Civil ...
in Madrid, which killed twelve civil guards.
Former ETA member Juan Manuel Suárez Gamboa recognized that Urrutikoetxea was one of the primary leaders of ETA. In October 1996, Jose Rego maintained that Urrutikoetxea was the head of ETA in 1987, which led to four more cases against him in the ''Audiencia Nacional.''
From 2002 he was a
fugitive
A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...
. In 2013, along with
David Pla Marín and
Iratxe Sorzabal, he met Spanish government representatives in Norway.
Norway allowed them to remain there, conditional on progress being made towards a final dissolution of ETA. When this did not occur, the three were expelled from the country. He was detained in France on 16 May 2019.
Political activity
Urrutikoetxea has been a member of the
Basque Parliament
The Basque Parliament (Basque: ''Eusko Legebiltzarra'', Spanish: ''Parlamento Vasco'') is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible.
The Parliament mee ...
in
Vizcaya on the lists of
Euskal Herritarrok
Euskal Herritarrok ( en, Basque Citizens, EH) was a Basque nationalism, Basque independentist and Socialism, socialist political party in the Euskal Herria, Basque Country. EH was banned in 2003 by the Supreme Court of Spain on the grounds that it ...
and has been a member of the Commission of Human Rights.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urrutikoetxea, Josu
1950 births
20th-century Spanish criminals
Basque prisoners and detainees
Batasuna politicians
ETA (separatist group) activists
Francoist Spain
Herri Batasuna politicians
Individuals designated as terrorists by the United States government
Living people
Members of the 6th Basque Parliament
Members of the 7th Basque Parliament
People convicted on terrorism charges
People from Arratia-Nerbioi
Spanish male criminals