User:Kawalski/José Luis Caso Cortines

José Luis Caso Cortines (Comillas, April 15, 1933 - Irún , December 11, 1997) was a Spanish politician, victim of ETA terrorism.

Biography
José Luis Caso Cortines was born in the town of Comillas in the bosom of a large family. Cantabrian by birth, he went to the Basque Country at age 22, in the middle of the 50s. He was founder of Alianza Popular in the Basque Country in 1982. Later, he was president of the Partido Popular of Irún as well as councilor of that town, in which he resided. At the time of the attack, which occurred at the end of 1997, he was retired and was a councilor of the People Party in the Rentería  Town Hall (Guipúzcoa), a position he held since 1995. He also belonged to the Board of Directors of the People Party of Guipúzcoa and the Board of Directors of the People Party of the Basque Country. He was buried in Irún. He was married, had two children and had a granddaughter. At the time of his murder he was 64 years old.

His replacement, Manuel Zamarreño, was assassinated a few months later, in June 1998.

Murder
In December 1997, the ETA members Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, alias Txapote , Irantzu Gallastegui Sodupe, Amaya , Sebastián Lara Mendiaraz, Alfonso Sebastián Iriarte, Jesús María Lombide Lorente, María Cristina Gete Echevarría and Ana Belén Egües Gurruchaga were part of the Donosti command. They had as objective to attack positions and councilmen of the People Party  and of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in the Basque Country. On December 11, 1997, José Luis Caso was at the bar of Bar Trinche de Irún. He used to go there daily. It was located at the back of the premises, having a drink in the bar. At 22:54 hours he was approached by an person who shot him. . José Luis Caso died as a result of this shot. . The terrorist, whose identity has not been proven, threatened the customers with the gun and the owner so that they would not follow him. After police went there, the judge on duty ordered the body to be lifted around midnight. During the next day thousands of people demonstrated in San Sebastian as a repulse to this murder.

The Third Section of the Criminal Division of the National Court issued Sentence No. 44/2006, dated June 30, 2006. The accused were acquitted of a crime of terrorist murder, which the Public Prosecutor accused them of, for lack of evidence .After this attack, there is no claim by ETA in the following days. However, the Judgment considers proven the authorship of said terrorist band. There is no condemnation for these events.