The statement of the eight defendants barely sheds light on the case: some question the Civil Guard report and the others do not remember anything relevant
The first two sessions of the trial held in Seville against eight soldiers for the death of the Mallorcan legionary Alejandro Jiménez Cruzdied March 25, 2019 after being shot at the Agost maneuver field (Alicante)allow you to set your defense lines. The alleged author of the shot, Sergeant Saúl Guil, for whom the prosecutor is requesting seven years in prison, maintained that he did not shoot in the last phase of the exercise and attributed the death of the soldier to a ricocheted bullet. The captain who was in command, Antonio Cabellowho is facing a prosecutor’s request for five years in prison, agreed with him, pointing out thatIn his opinion, the wound “was not a direct shot.” a lieutenant affirms that he did not fire during the entire maneuver, since his task was to supervise it, although he said that he did not remember in which positions they had ended up. The lieutenant of the other platoon affirms that neither he nor his NCOs used their weapons and he made sure that his men did not shoot obliquely to avoid precisely projectile ricochets. The other four defendants say they don’t remember if the sergeant fired.
The round of statements by the defendants has not shed excessive light on the case. Some of them have changed their version compared to the one initially given to the Civil Guard, and others incur in contradictions. For this reason surely The testimonies scheduled for next week – forensics, investigators and ballistics experts from the Civil Guard – will be crucial to clarify whether, as they concluded in the report, Alejandro Jiménez died as a result of a direct shot that came from the rifle assigned to sergeant of his own platoon.
The trial opened on Tuesday with the intervention of Sgt. His defense had submitted a request to testify after the experts and to annul his reports for a “break in the chain of custody.” Both were denied. Saúl Guil admitted that he had fired his weapon during the exercise -contrary to what he initially declared to the Civil Guard-, although not in its final phase, when it had already finished and a new enemy was invented on the slope of the mountain. He added that he saw that the lieutenants of the two platoons were also firing.
In a defiant tone before the prosecution lawyers, he denied having fired over the heads of his men to joke, described the reports of the Civil Guard experts as “erroneous” and maintained that, in his opinion, the projectile that killed Alejandro was a ricocheted bullet.
After he deposed Captain Antonio Cabellowho admitted that he was not in the field of maneuvers when the incident occurred, and that the following day made a reconstruction of what happened before the arrival of the Civil Guard and ordered the removal of the pods that were on the ground. Cabello insisted on the rebound theory. He said that he had seen bullet wounds before and the one presented by Alejandro Jiménez did not correspond to a direct shot.
The next to declare was the lieutenant in command of Alexander’s platoon. He stated that, contrary to what the sergeant said, he did not use his weapon during the entire exercise., since its mission was to monitor and correct the positions. When asked what position the sergeant and the soldiers had ended up in, he said he didn’t remember.
Wednesday’s session began with a statement from the lieutenant of the other platoon, already promoted to captain, who highlighted having specially controlled his men so that they did not shoot obliquely and thus avoid ricochets reaching Alejandro Jiménez’s platoon. The other defendants, a corporal and three soldiers, contradicted their positions and admitted that they followed the captain’s orders to change their locations in the reconstruction before the Civil Guard and remove the pods from the ground. None remembered seeing the sergeant shoot.
Forensic experts, the civil guards who carried out the investigation and the experts from the Ballistics Laboratory of the Civil Guard who determined that the bullet came from the sergeant’s rifle are expected to testify next week.