The central military court number 1 of Madrid, which investigates the death of two military at the base of Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) In December 2023 during aquatic maneuvers, he has decided reduce the processing of the high positions investigated For the event, according to sources close to the case.
The military judge has also resolved Exempt crimes in a tentative degree Both the colonel and the lieutenant colonel and the commander of the base, by the soldiers who had to be treated for hypothermia. However, these last two are kept investigated by the crimes against service dutiesof which the captain in charge of the maneuvers is also accused, such as a lieutenant.
Likewise, the military judge has also decided leave the sergeant out of the process investigated that it was in charge of installing the rope passing the lake where the maneuvers were performed.
The decision of the court refers to Article 77.1 of the Military Criminal Code which establishes that “the military who, due to serious recklessness and during the execution of an act of arms service, will cause the death or lesions constituting crimewill be punished with private liberty sentences respectively indicated in the Criminal Code for the Homicide or reckless injuriesincreased by a fifth, in its minimum and maximum limits, without prejudice to the provisions of article 21 of this Code. ”
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The judicial order presented last year details that it was a sergeant who chose the place For an instructional exercise, known as “River passage”, Despite warnings of a soldier with previous experiencethat considered it inappropriate by the depth of water. Even with doubts, the sergeant obeyed orders of the captain, who approved the place after exchanging messages for WhatsApp. Even other controls, such as a lieutenant and a corporal, expressed their reservations on the security of the year, although they also assumed that it should be carried out in a higher order.
-The day of exercise, with a exterior temperature of 4.3 degreesthe soldiers are They stripped part of their protection team To lighten weight, but some were forced to carry additional charges as punishment. The captain and the lieutenant explained that they should “cross the lake through the central zone without help “using the rope only in case of necessity.
when facing difficulties in the water, a sergeant “ordered the soldiers to return”, but the rope did not offer any help when sinking under weightwhich generated a “chaos” situation in which some tried to stay afloat up on it. While this was happening in the center of the swamp, “the captain from the shore shouted to those who were in the central area of the swamp that were released from the rope.”
Hypothermia, the main cause of drowning
The death of Cabo Miguel Ángel Jiménez Andújar and the soldier Carlos León Rico occurred after 9.00 for a “Anoxic syndrome for submersion”, Two soldiers required health care for hypothermia and one of them had to make resuscitation maneuvers on the shore, “since he was unconscious and came to present a body temperature of 32 degrees Celsius.”
The expert report indicated that the “Accidental hypothermia” can cause the few 20 minutes to enter the water anymore, you cannot swim “, While at 30 minutes there may be a “collapse” and, although it does not value what happened in Cerro Muriano, it describes what happens at a low water temperature where the soldiers were submerged during the maneuvers.
The basic preparation unit of which the deceased were part of 76 soldiers, 72 men and four women, under a captain and of which two lieutenants are part as heads of section, five instructors, between brigades and sergeants, and ten auxiliaries, five ends and soldiers with experience in the brigade.
