Councillors and police called to testify

Judge María Tardón of the Audiencia Nacional has summoned three members of Ceuta's city government as witnesses for 27 October. The order names Alberto Ramón Gaitán, Nabila Benzina and Alejandro Ramírez, and ABC reports that she will hear them from 10:00 that day. On 28 October she is due to take statements from three National Police officers, one inspector and two sub-inspectors according to ABC. The summonses follow a request from the prosecutor's office, and the order is dated 16 October. The judge has widened the inquiry into the mass entry of migrants from Morocco into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July.

Documents and recordings demanded

Tardón has asked Ceuta's city government and the Government Delegation to send minutes, notes, emails, draft statements and preparatory papers linked to meetings held on 27, 28 and 30 July. Witnesses have told the court that the gravity of the situation was raised repeatedly at those sessions, that extraordinary measures were requested and that urgent action was demanded. The Guardia Civil, the National Police, the Government Delegation, the city government, the Port Authority, the Chief of the Defence General Staff and the Centro de Inteligencia de las Fuerzas Armadas (CIFAS) are asked to send all video from CCTV, drones and border control systems recorded from 30 July. The court also wants the intelligence and security reports that the Army's Ceuta Command issued between 15 July and 7 August, plus the original report of REW 32, which appears among the declassified documents. CIFAS is asked for reports from its Morocco monitoring group and for satellite images of the border covering the same 15 July to 7 August window.

Early alerts and an informant

The judge is trying to establish who received early warnings and who, in the chain of command, decided not to act. The National Intelligence Centre (CNI) delivered a report in the week of 12 October saying it had issued early alerts to the Government Delegation and to Moroccan authorities. Gonzalo Sanz, chief of staff to the government delegate in Ceuta, told the court that reports were drawn up in the days beforehand and that the need for action was escalated to the central government. Sanz's testimony also refers to a person known as Ahmed, who lives in Benzú and reportedly passed on information about unusual movements in Castillejos before the events. The Guardia Civil and Ceuta police have been asked to identify him and to name the officers who handled him, and the judge wants those officers summoned as witnesses. In her order, the judge says:

“The documentation will allow verification of the exact content of the warnings given and the position held by each participating institution.”

Why the inquiry is widening

The order states that zones of uncertainty remain after the testimony already taken, which makes new steps necessary. Tardón wants to establish which information existed before the events, which authorities knew it, what decisions were taken at each level and what operational response followed. She describes the events as having reached an extraordinary magnitude and as having deeply affected the normal functioning of the city. The court also asks for official data from 30 July on entries recorded, returns, rescues, deaths, minors cared for, personnel deployed and resources mobilised. Ceuta's city government is asked for reports on the impact on public services in security, social services, education, health, economy and infrastructure, along with the economic damage report that the city's president mentioned as a witness. The witness hearings on 27 and 28 October are the next scheduled steps.