The Ministry of Defense has launched the file to suspend from duties the captain who directed the exercise in which two soldiers died on December 21, when they were carrying combat equipment across an artificial lake at the Cerro Muriano base ( Córdoba), according to sources from said department. The Military Career Law of 2007 provides for the suspension of functions of members of the Armed Forces “as a consequence of the prosecution, indictment or adoption of any precautionary measure against the accused in a criminal procedure or due to the initiation of a disciplinary procedure for misconduct. very serious". The imposition of this measure, which had already been requested by the families of the deceased, corresponds to the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and has a maximum duration of six months.
The Army already removed the captain from command of the company immediately after the accident, but he was not suspended from his duties, so he continued to go to the barracks and perform command duties. When he is suspended from his duties, he will stop doing so, although he will not lose his position, since suspension from employment is only foreseen in the event of a conviction or firm disciplinary sanction.
The captain declared last Friday as a defendant before the head of the territorial military court of Seville, who charges him with a crime against the effectiveness of the service resulting in death. The officer defended the exercise, despite the intense cold and the lack of safety measures, and said he still could not explain what happened and why a corporal and a soldier drowned and several others suffered hypothermia. The lieutenant adopted the same defensive line, who considered it normal that about 15 soldiers carried their backpacks overloaded with 3.5 kilo weights and argued that if not all of them carried them it was because there were not enough. On the other hand, the sergeant, the third of the accused commanders, said that it was a punishment imposed on the company by the lieutenant and admitted that the exercise should have been suspended, since the conditions for carrying it out were not met.
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