| Europe |
| Suspected ETA Big Pinched |
| 2010-03-02 |
| MADRID (AFP) The suspected military chief of ETA may have been planning a kidnapping when he was arrested along with two others at the weekend, Spain's interior minister said Monday. "One of the theories is that he was planning a kidnapping," Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spain's radio Cadena Ser. As opposed to a square dance ... Ibon Gogeascoechea Arronategui, 54, the "most senior" member of the Basque separatist group, was arrested in the northern French town of Cahan early Sunday, Spanish authorities said. The two ETA suspects detained along with him were "saying goodbye" to Gogeascoechea before leaving for Spain, Rubalcaba said. He said the handcuffs they were carrying led the police to suspect they were about to stage a kidnapping. Spanish newspaper ABC said Gogeascoechea was meeting the two others "to finalise the details of a kidnapping". But it said the identity of the person targeted was unclear, although police suspect it may have been a Basque businessman or a politician or even a judge. One of the two others arrested, Beinat Aguinalde Ugartemendia, 26, is suspected of the assassinations of a former socialist councillor and a Basque businessman in 2008, the Spanish interior ministry said Sunday. Rubalcaba had warned in December that ETA may be planning a "spectacular" attack or kidnapping during Madrid's EU presidency, which began on January 1, to prove it is still strong despite a series of setbacks. The latest arrests came amid stepped-up, cross-border cooperation by French and Spanish police against ETA, blamed for 828 deaths in its 41-year campaign for independence in the Basque region of northern Spain and southwestern France. ETA figures on several terrorist blacklists, including those of the European Union and the United States. Several members of the separatist outfit, mainly members of its armed wing, have been arrested in France in recent years. In November 2008, police in France arrested the then military chief of the organisation, Garikoitz Aspiazu, and captured his successors Aitzol Iriondo and Jurdan Martitegui over the following months. In October, they also detained the suspected political leader of ETA, Aitor Elizaran. |
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| Europe |
| ETA military leader arrested in France: police |
| 2009-04-19 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] Security forces in France have arrested Jurdan Martitegi, the suspected top military leader of the armed Basque separatist organization ETA. Martitegi was detained along with two other ETA suspects in the vicinity of the southwestern French city of Perpignan in an operation carried out in cooperation with Spanish security forces, Spanish national radio reported on Saturday. Spanish news reports said Martitegi confessed his identity to the arresting officers, who also seized three guns and a car with false number plates. Hours later, Spanish security forces detained a further three people in the Basque Country province of Alava in a related operation. The Basque news agency Vasco Press said Martitegi, 28, had been a member of ETA's most active unit, the Viscaya cell, which was dismantled by the Spanish police last July with the arrest of several members. He was believed to have replaced Aitzol Iriondo -- who was arrested in southwestern France on December 8 -- as the leader of ETA's military operations. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States as it is blamed for the deaths of 825 people in its 40-year campaign of bombings and shootings to carve a Basque homeland out of parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. |
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| Europe |
| French police detain new ETA Mr. Big |
| 2008-12-09 |
| French police arrested the suspected military chief and "No. 1 member" of ETA on Monday _ a new blow to the banned Basque militant group just weeks after his alleged predecessor was caught, officials said. Trailed by police, the man identified only as "Balak" and two alleged accomplices _ all armed _ were detained on a street in the southwestern French village of Gerde shortly after nightfall, a French police official. In a statement, French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said "Balak" appeared to be the new head of ETA's military arm, assuming control after Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu, alias Txeroki, was arrested on Nov. 17. In Spain, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the arrests Monday followed a joint French-Spanish police operation. He identified the suspect the French authorities called "Balak" as Aitzol Iriondo. "Aitzol Iriondo is presumably Txeroki's substitute," Rubalcaba told reporters in Madrid. "And as such we're talking about the military chief and No. 1 member of the terrorist group ETA." It was not immediately clear why there was an apparent discrepancy between the different names put forward by French and Spanish officials. Rubalcaba said authorities were working to identify the two other suspects. Investigators believe Iriondo was one of three ETA members who participated in the fatal shooting of two Spanish civil guard officers in the southern French town of Capbreton last December, Rubalcaba said. Police investigators were still trying to work out whether Iriondo or Aspiazu was the triggerman for the killing of the two Spanish civil guards, Rubalcaba said. Rubalcaba was clearly emboldened by the recent arrests. "I don't know if any terrorist is at this moment thinking about substituting Iriondo, but we can guarantee you that as we talk we're looking for that person," he said. "And it will go on like this until this finishes." |
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