Josu Muguruza

Josu Muguruza (1958 – 20 November 1989) was a Basque journalist and politician who was assassinated in Madrid on 20 November 1989 by members of the Spanish neo-fascist Bases Autónomas and GAL. Muguruza was among the leaders of Herri Batasuna, a left- wing Basque nationalist political party. He was about to serve at the Spanish Parliament for the party when he was killed.

Biography Muguruza was born in Bilbao in 1958. He was a journalist by profession and worked as an editor-in-chief of Egin newspaper. He was elected as a deputy from the Herri Batasuna in the 1989 general elections.

Assassination Muguruza was assassinated in Madrid on 20 November 1989 before he received his certificate of election. He was dining at a restaurant of Hotel Alcalá. The perpetrators were the members of an anti-ETA group known as GAL.

Later seven individuals, including a former police officer, Ángel Duce Hernández, were arrested in late July 1990. Of them, Duce and Ricardo Saenz de Ynestrillas were the members of a right-wing group called National Anti-Terrorist Group of Spain and were put trial for killing Muguruza. Duce confessed in the trial that he and two other men murdered Muguruza for political reasons, but claimed that Ynestrillas was not involved in the attack. Duce was killed in a traffic accident in Alcorcón in August 1997 while he was using a six-day prison permit. A monumental sculpture was erected in his honor in Bilbao.

The day, 20 November, Muguruza was assassinated has been commemorated by the Basque people since on the same day another Herri Batasuna leader Santiago Brouard was assassinated in 1984.