French police arrest three suspected Eta members
French police today arrested three suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group Eta, including the alleged second-in-command of its military wing, and found a weapons cache.
Another of those detained, Idoia Mendizabal, is suspected of being responsible for a car bomb attack against Eduardo Madina, the leader of a Socialist youth group in Spain, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.
Madina’s left leg had to be amputated after the 2002 attack.
The Spanish ministry identified the alleged No.2 of ETA’s military wing as Harriet Aguirre. The identity of the third person arrested was not immediately known.
French anti-terrorism investigating magistrate Marie-Antoinette Houyvet ordered the arrests. The three were picked up this morning in Arpajon-sur-Cere, a town in the Cantal region of south-central France.
Police also found a “small arsenal” in the house where they had been staying, said prosecutor Marc Robert.
The suspects were expected to be transferred quickly to Paris.
Eta, a Basque-language acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has killed more than 800 people since it began a campaign in the 1960s for an independent state encompassing the Basque regions of Spain and south-west France.
