Spain's Supreme Court reopens the case against ETA member Natividad Jáuregui over a 1981 killing
Spain's Supreme Court annulled a ruling that had shelved the case against Natividad Jáuregui over the 1981 Bilbao killing of Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Romeo Rotaeche. Two of the five judges dissented.
Supreme Court reverses the prescription ruling
Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday, 15 October 2026, annulled the Audiencia Nacional's decision to shelve the case against Natividad Jáuregui, known as Pepona, over the ETA attack of 19 March 1981 in Bilbao. The Criminal Chamber upheld appeals filed by the Prosecutor's Office and by the family of the victim, Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Romeo Rotaeche, who was shot in the nape of the neck as he left Mass at the Begoña basilica. The case returns to the court where it originated, and the ruling does not prejudge the outcome on the merits.
A 1989 order that interrupted the clock
The Audiencia Nacional had held that criminal liability lapsed 20 years after the attack, in 2001, because no criminal investigation targeted Jáuregui during that period. The Supreme Court's majority disagreed. It found that a court order of 24 April 1989 reopened the case file and incorporated statements by ETA member Enrique Letona that attributed participation in the attack to Jáuregui, which interrupted the 20-year period. According to the majority, the file was not a generic inquiry into ETA, since it had a defined object: one attack with a victim, place and date identified. That period had not run out when she was indicted on 1 December 2005, and the court noted that Letona was later questioned and witnesses were called to check his account. Letona exercised his right to remain silent and the investigation did not lead to prosecution at the time, but the court held that these steps were sufficient to interrupt the period.
It was not a mere act of receiving documents.
The judicial decision that interrupted the period was issued when it was still legally possible to investigate Jáuregui's participation.
Precautionary measures and the dissent
The ruling does not restore the precautionary measures that the Constitutional Court annulled in judgment 148/2024 of 2 December. The Audiencia Nacional will decide whether to impose new measures, a decision that must rest on a current, individualised and sufficiently reasoned assessment. Such measures could return her to prison. Two of the five magistrates who decided the case filed a dissenting opinion, arguing that the appeals should have been rejected and the prescription confirmed.
Background from Belgium to the Constitutional Court
Jáuregui spent decades on the run, and social media photos of her smiling at a seafood feast in Ghent, Belgium, gave her the nickname 'la etarra de las mariscadas'. Belgian authorities handed her over to Spain in 2020, after nearly four decades abroad. In November 2023 the Audiencia Nacional released her, with precautionary measures in place, after ruling the offences had prescribed. In September 2024 the Constitutional Court allowed her to leave Spain, and the Supreme Court's ruling now sends the case back for further proceedings.
- ETA attack in Bilbao kills Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Romeo Rotaeche
- Court order reopens the case file with Enrique Letona's statements
- Jáuregui is indicted, with the 20-year period not yet expired
- Belgium hands Jáuregui over to Spain
- Audiencia Nacional releases Jáuregui after finding the offences prescribed
- Constitutional Court allows Jáuregui to leave Spain
- Supreme Court annuls the prescription ruling and orders the case reopened
