The investigation by the Audiencia Nacional into the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta faces a key statement this Thursday. Judge María Tardón will take a statement as a witness from Gonzalo Sanz, who was chief of staff to the Government delegate in the autonomous city, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano. The head of the Ceuta Local Police will also appear.
Sanz's appearance comes after his departure from office and in the midst of an investigation into the communications maintained with the National Intelligence Center (CNI) in the hours leading up to the events. The former senior official received messages from a member of the intelligence service via WhatsApp and also had a telephone conversation of approximately eleven minutes on July 29, one day before the massive entry.
According to the information incorporated into the case, the CNI informed the Government Delegation at 1:52 p.m. on July 29 that calls were circulating on social networks to carry out an assault on Ceuta the next day by the fence and by sea. The warning also referred to the celebration of the Throne Day and the forecast that the Moroccan Security Forces and Corps would be occupied.
The existence of these communications has led to conflicting versions about whether or not the warnings reached the then Government delegate. While Pérez Triano maintained that he was not informed by his chief of staff, Sanz has maintained that he did convey the warnings received from the CNI. His statement before Tardón will allow the magistrate to gather his version of these communications and the Delegation's actions in the hours leading up to the entry.
The investigation reconstructs previous alerts
Sanz's statement comes after the appearance of the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, who testified this Wednesday before the judge as the first witness in the case. The Ceuta leader went to the Audiencia Nacional to explain the communications he had with the Government during the previous days and the requests for reinforcement of the Security Forces and Corps, declaration of emergency and establishment of a single command.
The president of Ceuta ratified before Tardón that he requested help from the central Government days before the massive entry into the autonomous city of migrants from Morocco, at the end of July, although he maintained that the Executive did not adopt the “preventive measures” that, in his opinion, were necessary to contain what he has described as an “invasion”.
The magistrate has also requested from various police and military organizations the alerts and risk analyses that may have been prepared before the events, along with information on their recipients, the channels used to transmit them, and the dates and times they were issued.
Tardón is thus investigating the possible existence of a prior planning of the mobilization that ended with the massive entry of people from Morocco. Among the agreed proceedings is also the analysis of images and the identification of people who, according to a report from the National Immigration and Borders Center (CENIF), would have exercised coordination and direction functions on the ground.
The case remains open in the Audiencia Nacional after the magistrate assumed the investigation into the events that occurred at the end of July, in which 83 people died during the attempt to enter Spanish territory. Ceuta is a private prosecution in the procedure.
