Spanish Ministry of the Interior grants the Silver Cross to civilian guard convicted of torture Sánchez Corbí
- The National Hearing obliges Minister Marlaska to raise the civil guard. He was dismissed in 2018 for "lack of trust." Sánchez Corbí appealed the decision and the National Court loved it. In 1997 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for torturing Kepa Urra and Aznar's government gave him a pardon.
Manuel Sánchez Corbí, who tortured together with the other two civil guards at Etarra Kepa Urra, has been promoted by the Minister of the Interior of the Spanish Government.
Marlaska stopped in 2018. In fact, at that time Sánchez Corbí was the head of the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard (a body of the Civil Guard that acts as a judicial police officer), and said that the money destined for that unit was frozen when Pedro Sánchez came to the Government. Marlaska did not see the leak with good eyes and dismissed the civil guard for “losing confidence” in him.
Sánchez Corbí appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, but did not get the backing. However, the National Hearing delivered a judgment in May this year in which it states that the Ministry of the Interior’s ruling is not “founded on law”. In addition, Marlaska has forced the colonel to grant the Silver Cross the order of merit of the Civil Guard, so far with the White Cross, of a lower level.
Pardoned torture
Sánchez Corbí and two other civil guards, Kepa Urra, were sentenced to 12 years and six months imprisonment for torture in 1997, but José María Aznar pardoned three in 1999.
Xabier Makazaga in his book Manual del Torturador español writes about Corbí: “When Lieutenant Kepa Urra was tortured, he was named captain during the torture sentence and upon being pardoned he was taken to the post of commander.” He was later appointed Colonel and in 2015 headed the UCO.
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