'ETA commando' is arrested by armed police in Cambridge

Published on Thursday 7 July 2011 16:14

A SUSPECTED Basque terrorist accused of plotting to assassinate the king of Spain was facing extradition after being arrested in Cambridge yesterday.

Cyril Macq worked at an internet shopping company and lived quietly with his partner and children - but that name was an alias for Eneko Gogeaskoetxea Arronategui, who was described as an ETA commando involved in the plot to kill King Juan Carlos of Spain in 1997 at the Guggenheim Bilbao.

Arronategui, 44, appeared at Westminster magistrate's court hours after police arrested him in a morning raid outside his house in Arbury, Cambridge.

Police also swooped on his workplace at Play.com where he had been employed over the past five years. He cycled to work every day, and lived with his partner and two children, a boy and a girl, under the Cyril Macq alias, Cambridge sources said.

Employees at Play.com, one of the biggest internet companies based in Cambridge, were shocked by Arronategui's arrest. Work colleagues described him as a pleasant man who kept to himself.

Spanish authorities had issued a European arrest warrant for Arronategui's extradition to Spain on grounds of alleged terrorism, participation in an armed gang, possession of weapons, theft and forgery. It is thought that he held a false British passport.

A judge ordered Arronategui to appear in court by video link from jail on 25 July.

Arronategui said he would fight extradition but his lawyer did not apply for bail.

Spanish authorities claim Arronategui fled to France then Britain after a policeman was shot five days before King Juan Carlos was set to inaugurate the opening of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in 1997. Arronategui escaped from the scene of the crime by sprinting through the streets of Bilbao and then holding up and hijacking three vehicles at gunpoint, it is alleged.

Spanish authorities claim he was part of a commando unit that hid grenades and missiles in flowerpots and in equipment marked with the fake stamp of Bilbao City Hall.

Armed police seized Arronategui outside his Cambridge home yesterday morning as he went to work, while a helicopter hovered overhead.

The arrest came after Scotland Yard received a tip-off from a Spanish national, who used the same squash club, it was reported - Arronategui was believed to be the membership secretary of Cambridge Squash Club.

Last year Arronategui's older brother, Ibon, was detained with two other senior Eta members near Cahan, a small town in Normandy. The Arronategui brothers originate from the Basque town of Guernica.Spanish authorities played down any suggestion that Eta had a structure in Britain.

"I do not believe there is an ETA structure in Britain, nor do I believe there is a specific collaboration with anyone in Britain," Spain's interior minister Alfredo Rubalcaba said after the arrest.

Arronategui was believed to have held a high position in ETA in 2006 and 2007, but investigators were still looking into his exact role, the minister added.

ETA has been linked with several plots to kill King Juan Carlos, who became king in 1975.

The group, which is fighting for an independent Basque homeland, has been blamed for more than 800 deaths during its 42-year campaign in Spain.