Civil guards convicted of torturing ETA terrorists have sentences overturned

The Supreme Court has annulled a 2010 ruling by the Gipuzkoa High Court sentencing four Civil Guard officers to prison terms for the torture of Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, the two ETA members who carried out the 2006 bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport that left two Eduadorian men dead.

The Supreme Court overturned the original sentence, which established a total of 11 years in jail for four of 15 officers accused of torturing Sarasola and Portu. In the Gipuzcoa court report, it was stated the officers beat the suspects, threatened to kill them and put a gun to Sarasola's head.

The decision was taken after days of deliberation over the appeals lodged by both the agents and the terrorists, who were sentenced to 1,040 years in prison for the December 30 attack, which brought to an end the ETA ceasefire of 2006.

In its December 30, 2010 ruling the Gipuzkoa court found the four agents guilty of two counts of torture and handed down sentences of between two and four and a half years. In its ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court stated that it could not be proven that torture had taken place and therefore it must impose "the right of presumption of innocence."

The court report affirmed that the testimony of two forensic investigators in San Sebastián had been based on their own version of events and did not mention the arrest and detention of the suspects but centered on alleged mistreatment during the detainees' transfer through a forest. "Therefore [the testimony] was based on false assumptions, with all the signs of falsehood." In quashing the original ruling, the Supreme Court said it must discard "any information that points to an excess of violence in the detention [of the suspects], in which case the appellants acted in carrying out a duty."

The court revoked sentences of four-and-a-half years for Sergeant J. C. G., the commander of the unit, two and half years for civil guard J. E. M. and two years for the agents S. G. A. M. and S. M. T. The resolution also awarded damages of 18,000 euros to Portu and 6,000 euros to Sarasola for the "physical and psychological damage caused."