{"id":14637,"date":"2019-05-16T06:56:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T10:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=14637"},"modified":"2019-05-16T06:56:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T10:56:19","slug":"josu-ternera-leader-of-eta-basque-rebels-arrested-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2019\/05\/16\/josu-ternera-leader-of-eta-basque-rebels-arrested-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Josu Ternera, leader of Eta Basque rebels, arrested in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The political leader of the Basque separatist group Eta has been arrested in the French Alps after 17 years on the run, officials say.<\/p>\n<p>In a joint French-Spanish police operation, Josu Ternera &#8211; whose real name is Jos\u00e9 Antonio Urrutikoetxea &#8211; was arrested in Sallanches.<\/p>\n<p>He is accused over several Eta killings.<\/p>\n<p>Eta, which waged a violent campaign for Basque independence for more than 40 years, said in 2018 it was disbanding.<\/p>\n<p>The group killed more than 800 people during its campaign of violence before declaring a ceasefire in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Reports say Ternera is seriously ill and Spanish police tipped off their French colleagues that he was on his way to hospital, triggering his arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Spanish prosecutors allege that Josu Ternera was involved in a car bomb attack outside a Civil Guard barracks in the northern city of Zaragoza in December 1987, which killed 11 people, including five children.<\/p>\n<p>From 1989 to 2000 he was held in French and Spanish jails.<\/p>\n<p>He is now expected to be imprisoned in France, because last June a French court sentenced him to eight years for leading a &#8220;terrorist&#8221; group.<\/p>\n<p>But Spain is likely to request his extradition over the Zaragoza attack and alleged involvement in other crimes, including the 1980 murder of a Michelin manager, Luis Mar\u00eda Hergueta.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/604B\/production\/_97415642_007_in_numbers_624.png\" alt=\"Presentational white space\" width=\"624\" height=\"1\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/111A0\/production\/_106984007_016aca97-e7dc-48f0-91f7-80167a4c2139.jpg\" alt=\"Spain map including Basque region\" width=\"976\" height=\"599\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">The Basque Country&#8217;s population is about 2.2 million<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">It has autonomous status within Spain, with its own president and parliament<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">It is called Euskadi in Basque, an ancient tongue unrelated to other European languages<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Ethnic Basques also live in adjacent areas of Spain and France<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/604B\/production\/_97415642_007_in_numbers_624.png\" alt=\"Presentational white space\" width=\"624\" height=\"1\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>Eta began its violent campaign in 1968, during the Franco military dictatorship, and is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>Ternera is also on\u00a0<a class=\"story-body__link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/executive-order-13224\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the US sanctions list, as a designated &#8220;terrorist&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Eta disbanded<\/h2>\n<p>In an audio announcement in May 2018, Ternera said Eta had &#8220;completely dismantled all of its structures&#8221; and would &#8220;no longer express political positions, promote initiatives or interact with other actors&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said former members would &#8220;continue the struggle for a reunited, independent, socialist, Basque-speaking and non-patriarchal Basque Country&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Josu Ternera was elected to the Basque regional parliament, despite being prosecuted by the Spanish authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Spain&#8217;s Supreme Court had ordered him to appear before a judge in November 2002 but he never turned up. At that point an international arrest warrant was issued, and Interpol listed him among the most wanted fugitives.<\/p>\n<p>His last public appearance was in October 2002, when he spoke to journalists with a Basque separatist ally, Arnaldo Otegi, at the UN building in Geneva, Spain&#8217;s La Vanguardia daily reports.<\/p>\n<p>Sources at Spain&#8217;s interior ministry are quoted as saying Ternera has been living near Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, an Alpine village near Mont Blanc.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-48293187\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">The political leader of the Basque separatist group Eta has been arrested in the French Alps after 17 years on the run, officials say. In a joint French-Spanish police operation, Josu Ternera &#8211; whose real <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2019\/05\/16\/josu-ternera-leader-of-eta-basque-rebels-arrested-in-france\/\" title=\"Josu Ternera, leader of Eta Basque rebels, arrested in France\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[6237,6236,6234,2913,6235,933],"class_list":{"0":"post-14637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-basque-independence","10":"tag-basque-separatist","11":"tag-eta","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-josu-ternera","14":"tag-spain","15":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14639,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14637\/revisions\/14639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}