Valentín Lasarte, a former member of ETA who entered the prisoner reintegration program Vía Nanclares, was summoned on Monday as a witness in the National Court to clarify the murder of the San Sebastián Popular Party councilor, Gregorio Ordóñez, which marks its 30th anniversary this Sunday. Lasarte, convicted for this crime along with other ETA members, did not cooperate in the investigation and stated he did not remember who ordered him to commit the murder.
During his testimony before Judge De Jorge, Lasarte admitted that he knew the councilor and that he followed up on the execution of the attack, but asserted that he did not remember who specifically gave him the order. He is also attributed with the assassination of the socialist politician Fernando Múgica in San Sebastián.
Lasarte was released from prison in 2015 after serving 19 years of a sentence, and in his testimony, he claimed not to remember if he had communicated his intention to leave the gang to any ETA leader. His statement was crucial in the case against five former ETA leaders, but ultimately he did not aid in clarifying the facts.
Lasarte's testimony was awaited in the case that seeks to identify the mastermind behind the murder of Gregorio Ordóñez and the orders given by the former leaders of the terrorist group to carry out various attacks. Despite the expectations, Lasarte did not provide relevant information during his statement in the National Court.