El País reports that the legal proceedings following the death of two soldiers during maneuvers at the Cerro Muriano base are entering a key phase. The military prosecutor filed charges against two army officers for events that occurred on December 21, 2023, when a training exercise ended with the drowning of two servicemen.
The case falls under Spanish military jurisdiction and is being brought before the Central Military Tribunal, the body responsible for trying high-ranking commanders. The indictment defines specific criminal responsibilities and excludes, at least for now, the accusation of other senior officers.
A charge with prison sentences
The prosecutor is demanding eight years in prison for the captain responsible for the exercise and five years for the lieutenant directly commanding the section involved. Both are accused of two crimes against the efficiency of the service resulting in death, a criminal figure equivalent to reckless homicide in the ordinary Penal Code.
In addition to the prison sentences, the indictment demands joint compensation of more than 420,000 euros for the victims’ families. The Ministry of Defense presents itself as a subsidiary civil party, which implies that it would assume payment in the event that the convicts were unable to do so.
The criminal scope of military crime
Under the prosecutor’s approach, the defendant’s behavior is not limited to a specific mistake. The document describes a chain of decisions adopted without the required security controls in an exercise with these characteristics, which would have decisively increased the risk for the participating military personnel.
Senior managers outside the public prosecutor’s office
One of the most controversial aspects of the case is the exclusion of criminal liability of senior officers. The prosecutor does not see a crime in the actions of a lieutenant colonel and a commander who were hierarchically superior to the direct accused.
Despite this, both will remain on the bench, since the families of the deceased maintain the private accusation. During the investigation phase, other perpetrators have already been exonerated, including a colonel and a non-commissioned officer, which sparked an intense debate on the delimitation of responsibilities within the military structure.
The chain of command in the spotlight
The legal case once again puts on the table a recurring question in military accidents: how far does criminal liability extend in a highly hierarchical organization. The prosecutor considers that the critical decisions were made at a specific level and that there is not enough evidence to charge higher levels.
An improvised exercise without sufficient guarantees
The account of events included in the indictment is particularly harsh regarding the planning of the exercise. According to the prosecutor, the captain did not sufficiently inform his superiors about the real conditions of the activity nor detailed the specific risks of the maneuver that was going to be carried out.
The exercise consisted of crossing a pond using a rope which was to serve as a guide. However, the rope was placed in an area where soldiers could not stand and was not intended to serve as a support element in the event of a shipwreck.
Excessive load and low water temperature
The accused lieutenant allegedly allowed soldiers to continue carrying training equipment weighing more than three kilos in their backpacks. This additional load made buoyancy difficult in water with a temperature of around eight degrees, according to the investigation.
Several testimonies collected during the investigation warned that the location chosen for the crossing was dangerous. The exercise nevertheless continued without substantial modifications.
A chaotic scene with no immediate response
The maneuver quickly led to a disorderly situation. The soldiers struggled to advance through a muddy bottom, with branches and drops, while some began to call for help.
The prosecutor describes a scenario in which all we saw were heads bobbing up and down in the water, soldiers trying to hold on and conflicting orders. In this context, two soldiers ended up drowning without being able to intervene in time.
Delay in health care
In addition to these two deaths, other soldiers suffered from hypothermia and had to be hospitalized. At the time of the accident, no ambulance was available in the area, as it was assigned to another exercise, a circumstance already known to the responsible command.
The arrival of the health services occurred a few minutes later, an element which is also part of the judicial analysis of the safety conditions of the exercise.
A trial whose impact goes beyond the specific case
The process which is now heading towards an oral trial will not only determine the criminal responsibility of two police officers. It may also set a relevant precedent regarding the safety standards required in military training and the effective control of risky maneuvers.
While victims’ families await justice, the military faces public scrutiny that calls into question internal procedures, security protocols and how training activities are monitored. The decision of the Central Military Tribunal will mark a before and after in the management of this type of exercises.
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