Batasuna spokesman arrested in France as search for De Juana Chaos moves to Belfast

Batasuna spokesman arrested in France as search for De Juana Chaos moves to Belfast
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By h.b. - Sep 24, 2008 - 8:30 AM

Batasuna spokesman Xabi Larralde - Archive Photo

It follows the arrest of another two alleged ETA activists in France yesterday, and a meeting between Spanish and French Interior Ministers later today.

The spokesman for Batasuna, the outlawed political wing of ETA, Xabi Larralde, has been arrested this morning in France together with at least six other French Basque activists. It comes as a bilateral meeting between the French and Spanish interior ministers is planned to take place in Toulon later today.

Meanwhile, the National Court in Spain has ordered that a search be carried out to find the whereabouts of José Ignacio De Juana Chaos, the long-time ETA activist who was released from prison in August this year having served his sentence for 25 killings.
It comes amid reports from police sources that De Juana and his wife, Irati Aranzabal, are now living in Belfast, under the protection of IRA sympathisers.

Observers say that the couple could only have got to Northern Ireland using a false passport or with the help of the IRA. It’s believed the couple took a Ryanair flight from Biarritz to Dublin on August 3.
Now the National Court here has ordered Interpol to locate him as he is wanted to declare in a case here.

Meanwhile the Minister for the Interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, has said that for now there is no evidence that the two alleged ETA activists arrested in France yesterday have any links to the three car bombs set off by the terrorists in Spain last weekend.

ETA activists Unai Fano and María Lizarraga - Photos EFE

One of them, Unai Fano, is known to have acted as a link between the illegal political wing Batasuna, and the terrorists.
The other, María Lizarraga, was a Segi youth group militant and stood for election for the Abertzale Sozialistak party.
They were arrested in Trelins in the Choringneaux area when trying to steal a car, and were found to have two other stolen vehicles, and a pistol and revolver with ammunition.

Around 2,500 people made an emotional goodbye yesterday to the Army Officer, Luis Conde de la Cruz, who was killed by an ETA car bomb in the early hours of Monday morning, joining his wife and son Iván for the funeral held in his native Segovia. The Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the P.P. leader Mariano Rajoy, attended the funeral together as a sign of unity against the terrorists.

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