Former ETA leader Mikel Antza asks for his trial to be postponed because he is "on vacation in Mallorca."

PalmFormer ETA leader Mikel Albisu Iriarte, known as Mikel Antza, has asked the judge to postpone his statement in the case investigating the murder of San Sebastián councilor Gregorio Ordóñez, a member of the People's Party (PP) party, 30 years ago, because he "is on vacation in Mallorca."

Mikel Antza was scheduled to testify on September 10 before National Court Judge Francisco de Jorge, who has prosecuted the ETA leadership at the time of the murder. In a letter sent on September 1, the lawyer for the former leader of the terrorist group indicated that on the date he is due to give his statement via videoconference from the San Sebastián court, his representative will be in Mallorca. Specifically, Mikel Antza will be on the island between September 4 and 11, to enjoy a vacation he had booked "several months ago."

To justify this circumstance, the lawyer has sent copies of the round-trip ferry tickets, and has asked the head of the Central Examining Court 1 of the National Court to suspend the preliminary investigation and set a new date after September 11. In addition to Albisu Iriarte, the judge summoned former ETA leaders Ignacio Gracia Arregi, Iñaki de Renteria, and Luis Agirre Lete (Isuntza) to testify via videoconference on September 10.

During the judicial investigation, Judge De Jorge has also prosecuted former ETA leaders José Javier Arizcuren Ruiz (Kantauri) and Julián Atxurra Egurola (Pototo) for the murder of Gregorio Ordóñez, although in April they chose not to testify before the magistrate investigating their alleged offender.

In the ruling that prosecuted these former ETA leaders, the head of the Central Court of Instruction 1 recalled that the murder of Ordóñez, on January 23, 1995, shot by a hooded man in a restaurant in San Sebastián, was processed through the Executive Committee or leadership of ETA. The judge considered that his decisive role in the order to murder the 36-year-old councilor had been proven, as a result of a collegiate decision adopted in 1994.

The members of the Donosti commando Francisco Javier Valentín Lasarte were convicted as the material authors of this attack. Lasarte, who had already served time for that murder, was called to testify in this new case as a witness and, despite his status as a repentant ETA member, his lack of memory was the tone of his testimony; He said he didn't remember who gave the order to attack the councilman and claimed he didn't remember anything about these events because 30 years had passed.