Civil guard José Martínez Salas shot the Donostian activist Gladys Del Estal in the antinuclear festival held in Tudela on 3 June 1979. The judge imposed a minimum sentence of 18 months in prison for negligence and death – ratified in 1984 by the Spanish Supreme Court – and it is not certain that he has made a stay in prison.

According to ARGIA, in just two months of being convicted, the civil guard was decorated with a Concha flag. Journalist Urko Apaolaza explained the finding in his investigation for the Larrun supplement. Martínez Salas was appointed Cruz Blanca del Mérito de la Guardia Civil on 15 February 1982, and his name appears in the Official State Gazette in a resolution signed by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

It was known that the murderer of Gladys del Estal was given another prize for military merit, later, in 1992. And the then Minister of the Interior, José Luís Corcuera, justified that decision at the Madrid Congress, saying that the civil guard had already served the sentence and was entitled to it.

The decoration we have now discovered has gone unnoticed to historians and lawyers, and puts upside to the argument of the Government of Spain, which awarded the murderer the prize without having served the penalty, and it should also be clarified whether it is legal.

According to Apaolaza in his work, the legitimacy of such decorations is also questioned, even more so by reading the reception conditions of the White Cross. It is based on a Francoist law of 1976, in which the civil guard has to demonstrate "exceptional competences, professional and civic" and have "exemplary behavior".

I work in depth on the life and death of Gladys del Estal

This year marks 40 years since the death of activist Gladys Del Estal. ARGIA has produced his biography in the Larrun supplement, in the context of the anti-nuclear movement back then. For this purpose, it has inspected photographic files and files, files, newspaper archives, WikiLeaks cables and institutional records.

“In these forty years the shadow of impunity has prevailed at dawn,” says Apaolaza. In the report that killed the daughter of the Sun there are also more unknown aspects about the life of Gladys Del Estal: “Gladys was not on that Ebro bridge by chance, he was driven there by his commitment and character.”

The supplement will reach the sponsors of ARGIA this week, and from Thursday it will also be able to read on the Internet.