FACTS:

-In 2002, he received the first letter of extortion from ETA. The terrorist organisation was demanding a payment of 25 million pesetas. His own daughter appeared as the sender when it arrived at the company.

-In the following years, he received a total of three more letters. Two at the company. The return address on the first letter, received just before the truce, was that of another businessman with whom he had business relations and the contents were very aggressive. It accused him of failing to comply with the required payment and informed him that he had, therefore, become a military objective of the band. The other letter, on which his son appeared as the sender, arrived during the so-called truce. The tone of the language had softened and it called for money as a form of collaboration. Finally, he received a letter at the home of his daughter on which he appeared as the sender.

CONSEQUENCES:

“When eight years ago I received the first letter at the company, the office worker who was working with me at the time opened it because he imagined what it was. He told me what it said and then gave it to me. When I got home I gathered my family and told them what had happened; we had a bit of a cry – my wife, my daughter couldn’t stop crying. My wife asked me to leave the Basque Country, my daughter was terrified. “

“At first I was afraid and harboured the suspicion that someone who worked at the company and who held very radical views may have provided the information. That would be difficult because the company was a small one and I personally knew all the workers.”

“I only read the first letter. I didn’t want to read the others because it would make me feel worse. As they arrived, without even opening them, I called the Guardia Civil and handed them over. I recognised them by the return addresses; later they told me what they said.”

“Even then, with that first letter and more so after the others, my daughter said she didn’t want to live here. She even argued with her husband and asked him to leave the company where he was working and to leave the Basque Country. She was afraid the same would happen to them and that they could also be affected by what was happening to me.”

“One of the worst things you feel is the anger when you realise the control that these people have over you; that they can easily cause so much physical and psychological harm, because it greatly affected my children.”

“At first I change my lifestyle radically. I had a house in Rioja and I practically went to live there. There was a time when I looked under my car every time I went anywhere. I was living in fear, real fear.”

“The letters made it very clear that they had all the information they needed on me and on those around me. They knew exactly where I was, to the extent that they even had my son’s address, who at the time was studying outside the Basque Country.”

“They were asking me for money because I was a businessman and because I was a partner of the company and its manager. This information appears in the Register of Companies and is publicly available. It provides certain information and that information leads to further data and hence the fear because you are completely exposed.”

“I never paid. My approach was to keep the business for my son in the future so that when he finished his studies he could train to manage it. But when my son got married, his wife did not want them to remain here due to the extortion that I was suffering. This affected me a lot; to see that I would be unable to pass on the company for which I had worked so hard – the threatening situation and the extortion was the cause of everything. I no longer saw any reason to continue so, in 2008, I decided to sell the company.”

“Two years ago, after selling the company, I also changed my address and since then I have not received any more letters. But I still do not know what information they may have on me. I do not know why they have left me alone because they could reach me using their strategies. I don’t know whether it is because I am no longer in the business or because they are weaker.”

“Today I can say that I have adjusted and that I no longer live in fear like before – it is impossible to live in terror. Before, every letter brought back the fear. Today, from a psychological point of view, I have overcome the situation; I simply do not think about it. I think nothing is going to happen to me, but I also think that they have the information and that I have failed to comply with their demands. “

“The greatest benefit they achieve is terror.”

*Related documents:

DEIA-Noticias de Bizkaia (6/9/2010)

Europapress.es (29/9/2010)

elcorreodigital (30/4/2011)