Eta suspects arrested a day after ceasefire

Published on Tuesday 11 January 2011 16:23

Police in Spain and France arrested two suspected members of Eta yesterday, suggesting the government in Madrid will keep up pressure on the violent Basque separatist group despite the latter's declaration of a permanent ceasefire.

In raids held less than 24 hours after Eta's ceasefire announcement, a suspect considered to be a computer encryption expert for the separatist group was arrested in a joint operation with French police in the southern French town of Ciboure.

The Spanish interior ministry identified him as Iraitz Gesalaga, 27, and said his girlfriend, Itxaso Urtiaga, 21, was picked up back across the Spanish border in the beach town of Zarautz. Gesalaga had been sought since his name emerged in papers seized when an Eta leader was arrested in May 2008, the ministry said.

A senior government official speaking separately said Gesalaga had links to Colombia's Farc rebels and that the arrests' timing was a coincidence because the suspects had been under investigation at least since March.

The government said only that Spanish authorities were probing whether the suspect had had contacts with the Farc.

Gesalaga is one of Eta's top experts in computer techniques for encoding messages and documents, and Urtiaga may have helped him, the ministry said.

"The arrests carried out today are a major blow for Eta," it said, not mentioning the ceasefire.

Eta called this ceasefire a firm step toward ending a decades-long fight for independence. But Madrid has demanded that Eta disband and lay down its arms.