The Spanish Supreme Court has sentenced a former interior minister, and most of his senior antiterrorist staff, to long prison sentences for a kidnapping in 1983, according to information leaked to Madrid newspapers yesterday. If confirmed, Mr Jose Barrionuevo will be the first government minister to be jailed since the re-establishment of Spanish democracy.
Both the Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, and the Socialist Party leadership refuse to comment until the sentence is made official. But a leader of the Basque Nationalist Party, Mr Inaki Anasagasti, described the sentence as "good for the rule of law". He added that Mr Felipe Gonzalez, who was prime minister at the time of the kidnapping, should no longer be considered a candidate for the presidency of the European Commission.
The 11 judges hearing the case are reported to have voted seven to four in favour of 13-year jail sentences for Mr Barrionuevo, Socialist minister for the interior from 1982 to 1986, and for his deputy, Mr Rafael Vera. They have been convicted of participating in the kidnapping of Mr Segundo Marey, a Basque businessman mistaken for a member of ETA, and of misusing public funds. They have, however, been absolved of membership of an armed gang, a charge which would have added 10 years to their sentence.
The eight-week trial arose out of investigations into the role of the Socialist administration, then led by Mr Gonzalez, in the Grupos Anti-terroristas de Liberacion (GAL). This shadowy organisation conducted a "dirty war" against ETA which claimed 27 lives, almost all on French soil and many of them unconnected to ETA, for several years after Mr Marey's kidnapping. It is believed that the GAL's aim was to "persuade" the French government to act against ETA members in the French Basque Country. The trial ended last Tuesday week, and a sentence was not expected before the end of the month. However, it appears that the judges reached a decision by this Tuesday morning. The full sentence will probably be published next week.
Nine of Mr Barrionuevo's subordinates, ranging from the the director of state security to policemen, have already admitted their guilt. Their evidence implicated the former minister and his deputy. Mr Gonzalez himself had to appear as a witness, but was not charged. Mr Barrionuevo and Mr Vera asserted their innocence to the last day of the trial.
The sentence was described as "tremendously unjust" by Mr Barrionuevo's wife yesterday, but Mr Vera's legal advisers told The Irish Times that any comment before the sentence is published would be "premature".
Both men will probably appeal to the Constitutional Court, and legal opinion is divided as to whether they will have to go to prison in the interval.
There is also the possibility of a pardon from Mr Aznar's government, which came to power on the back of the GAL scandal. One legal source said yesterday that "it is in no one's interest that these gentlemen should be in prison". But there is a difficulty: to apply for a pardon implies admission of guilt.
The nightmare scenario for the Socialists is that both men, once in prison, will change their evidence, as their subordinates have done beforehand, and attempt to implicate Mr Gonzalez directly in the GAL.
Regardless of this, Socialist sources say that the sentence, if confirmed, would make it almost impossible for the former prime minister, who resigned as party leader last year, to return to national politics. Nor could he retain a high international profile. He is currently offering to act as mediator in the Kosovo conflict.
GAL's real nature has not been clarified by this trial, but there are several more cases to come, in which other Socialist leaders, and senior military figures, face charges including torture and murder. Asked if Spanish democracy can take the strain, a leading expert on the Socialist Party, Dr Santos Julia, said yesterday: "Yes, I believe it can. It is a sign of the maturity of our democracy that such matters have been investigated and come to trial."