Within 40 years of their disappearance, the families of both young people and the Egia Zor Foundation have denounced that they have not yet been considered victims of terrorism and have not been recognised as tortured. Joxi Zabala and Joxean Lasa were kidnapped in Baiona by a Civil Guard group and taken to the Palace of the San Sebastian Summit, where they were tortured. They were then taken to Alicante, where they were shot and killed.

The kidnapping and murder was taken over by the GAL, but it was later clarified in the trial that the entire operation was carried out by the civilian guard team, at the orders of the then head of the Intxaurrondo Civil Guard headquarters, Enrique Rodríguez Galindo. The entire operation was also conducted by the then Civil Governor of Gipuzkoa (PSOE), Julen Elgorriaga.

The bodies of Lasa and Zabala appeared on 25 January 1985 in a mountainous area of the Alicante municipality of Busot, buried with land and lime. A hunter found the corpses, notifying them to the Civil Guard, but they were not identified and deposited in the Alicante morgue.

They were finally identified in spring 1995. The police of the Alicante judicial police, Jesús García, suspected the two bodies of the warehouse and contacted the well-known judicial doctor, Paco Etxeberria. After the DNA tests, it was confirmed that they were two young people from Tolosa.

Faced with the situation of the bodies, Etxebarria stated that, in his view, the two youths suffered a very bloody torture, that they left them very badly and that they probably decided to die because they had very serious injuries.

Relatives have so far rejected requests to be considered victims of terrorism, arguing that the two tolosarras were partners. As Joxi's sister, Pili Zabala, has often reminded us, the young people were not tried and then cannot be considered as legal groups.

Sanctions and impunity

In April 2000, the Spanish National Court sentenced former civil governor Julen Elgorriaga to 71 years in prison. By then I had already put 69 years old Lt. Col. Enrique Rodríguez Galindo and Angel Vaquero, General of the Civil Guard. The civil guards Enrique Dorado and Felipe Bayo were sentenced to 67 years.

Elgorriaga was not a year in prison and Rodríguez Galindo did not serve five years in prison. Bayo and Dorado had already enjoyed numerous release permits in 2002 and had not complied with the entire sentence.

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary, Egia Zore convened a commemorative event on October 20 at the Aretoa de Tolosa topic at 19:30 hours. Furthermore, on 7 October, the aforementioned association and the families of both young people commemorated their inhumation in Buson (Alicante).