Before the sun came out, Baltasar Garzón sent 200 Spanish police to close the Egin newspaper and radio. At four o'clock in the morning the sound of the phone awoke Jabier Salutregi, then director of Egin. It was the day he went on vacation, but under the doctrine of “everything is ETA” the media was closed and Salutregi, along with other colleagues, was arrested.

The National Police called "operation Persiana" at the closure of Egin. The following day the workers published the Euskadi newspaper information. This newspaper was published until January 1999, the date on which the Gara newspaper was born, which is still in force today. When they founded Gara, they immediately related him to Egin, accusing him of keeping the same capitals, workers and goods. In the face of this, Gara argued that they had another capital and another asset, that some workers were equal, but that new employees were also incorporated. However, it did not do anything and a fine of EUR 4.7 million fell on Gara’s body. Today it has to pay EUR 3 million, and the newspaper is working to collect that money in order to meet the deadlines imposed on it.

Harsh prison sentences

Several members of the management and board of directors were arrested and sentenced in the “operation persiana”. The then director, Jabier Salutregi, spent seven years in jail, and for the Egin case, Joxean Etxebarria was the last to leave prison after eleven years in jail.

Enemies of Actions

Egin opposed the Government of Spain since its inception. In 1979, for example, the then director of the Armed Institute, Mirentxu Purroy, was arrested for spreading a ETA statement. In an interview given to the Public Journal, Jabier Salutregi stated that in the first councils of ministers of the UCD Government they thought of closing the newspaper, but they did not dare because they were still in transition. Margarita Robles was the Secretary of State for the Interior during the government of Felipe González and in July 1998, following the closure of Egin, pointed out that at the time they thought about closing Egin, but finally they did not because they did not know whether it was compatible with the Spanish Constitution or not.