ETA head suspect in custody
Source: Agencies |
March 1, 2010, Monday
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THE suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA was arrested by police in northwestern France yesterday, according to Spain's government.
Ibon Gogeascoechea and two other suspected ETA members were taken into custody by French police in the village of Cahan, France, following a long surveillance operation on a cottage rented using a false identity, Spain's Interior Ministry said.
Gogeascoechea, 54, is wanted for allegedly helping to place 12 explosive devices around the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, northern Spain, in 1997 on the eve of the gallery's inauguration by the king of Spain. The plot was discovered before the bombs exploded, but Gogeascoechea's brother, Eneko, shot and killed a Basque regional policeman there.
Ibon Gogeascoechea would be the fifth suspected ETA leader arrested in Spain or France since November 2008.
ETA is a nationalist and separatist organization that has killed more than 825 people since launching a violent campaign in the 1960s aimed at carving out an independent Basque homeland. Spain, France, the European Union and the United States consider ETA a terrorist organization.
This year, about 30 suspected ETA members have been arrested. In February, a bomb making base in Portugal was raided by police.
In yesterday's raid, French police found bomb-making equipment, a stolen car falsely registered in France, documents and computer equipment, said Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
The other two ETA members were identified by the Interior Ministry as Beinat Aguiagalde, 26, and Gregorio Jimenez, 55. All three are wanted by Spain's National Court on suspicion of involvement in terror attacks.
Aguiagalde is wanted in connection with the murders of former Basque regional politician Isaias Carrasco in March 2008 and businessman Ignacio Uria Mendizabal in December 2008.
Ibon Gogeascoechea and two other suspected ETA members were taken into custody by French police in the village of Cahan, France, following a long surveillance operation on a cottage rented using a false identity, Spain's Interior Ministry said.
Gogeascoechea, 54, is wanted for allegedly helping to place 12 explosive devices around the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, northern Spain, in 1997 on the eve of the gallery's inauguration by the king of Spain. The plot was discovered before the bombs exploded, but Gogeascoechea's brother, Eneko, shot and killed a Basque regional policeman there.
Ibon Gogeascoechea would be the fifth suspected ETA leader arrested in Spain or France since November 2008.
ETA is a nationalist and separatist organization that has killed more than 825 people since launching a violent campaign in the 1960s aimed at carving out an independent Basque homeland. Spain, France, the European Union and the United States consider ETA a terrorist organization.
This year, about 30 suspected ETA members have been arrested. In February, a bomb making base in Portugal was raided by police.
In yesterday's raid, French police found bomb-making equipment, a stolen car falsely registered in France, documents and computer equipment, said Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
The other two ETA members were identified by the Interior Ministry as Beinat Aguiagalde, 26, and Gregorio Jimenez, 55. All three are wanted by Spain's National Court on suspicion of involvement in terror attacks.
Aguiagalde is wanted in connection with the murders of former Basque regional politician Isaias Carrasco in March 2008 and businessman Ignacio Uria Mendizabal in December 2008.
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