Sánchez Corbi was convicted by the Biscay Court for torturing Kepa Urra in 1997. He was sentenced to four years in prison and six years in prison. The conviction, however, was not an impediment to the appointment of Sánchez Corbi as Chief Colonel of the UCO of the Civil Guard, who was pardoned by the government of José María Aznar (PP) in 1999. He's been in that command position to this day. In fact, the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has decided to dismiss him because of the loss of confidence in him.

The decision taken by Sánchez Corbi last week has caused this loss of confidence in the Spanish government. The former Colonel ordered a temporary suspension of the operation of the unit for which he was responsible, on the grounds that no resources were available in the Reserve Expenditure Fund. The news agency Europa Press, citing sources from the Ministry of the Interior, notes that the decision jeopardized several ongoing police operations.

According to these sources, the Ministry of the Interior has not cancelled the resources for the UCO. Instead, it was carrying out an "analysis" of expenditure to clarify how the amounts allocated were being used.

The appointment of Sánchez Corbi, after being convicted of torture, to a high position in the Civil Guard provoked adverse reactions among the nationalist parties of the Basque Country. The former colonel attended the Spanish Congress in November 2017 on the PP’s funding research committee. Oskar Matute, a deputy of the Assembly, reminded him of the condemnation of the torture of Kepa Urra. Sanchez Corbi did not answer.

The PNV, for its part, reprimanded the government of Mariano Rajoy (PP) for keeping Colonel Sánchez Corbi in charge when the civil guard recently made statements against the PNV. The former colonel stated in an interview to present his book Blood, Sweat and Peace that "the ETA, the Union, the PNV and the Basque Church" were the "bad guys" in the fight against ETA. He added that the dirty war had not been "so important" and that the PNV did not want the defeat of ETA.

In this book, Sánchez Corbi reports that civil guards have used family members in operations against ETA in the French State.

Along with Sánchez Corbi, three other civil guards were charged with torturing Kepa Urra. Among them, Diego Pérez de los Cobos. The latter was responsible for the coordination of the security forces appointed by the Spanish Government during the operation to prevent the referendum of 1 October in Catalonia.

When Kepa Urra was in the hospital after being tortured, he was "visited" by Pérez de los Cobos and Alejandro Hernández Mosque, another of the accused civil guards.

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