Portugal to extradite two ETA suspects
AFP – 25 February 2010
Portuguese authorities said on Thursday they would extradite two suspected members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA to Spain.
The two men were held in northern Portugal on January 10 after fleeing a police check in Spain.
During the operation, the Spanish Civil Guard seized a van containing arms, weapons and explosives.
Portuguese officials held the two men, Garikoitz Garcia Arrieta and Iratxe Yanez Ortiz de Barron, in preventative custody in Lisbon on suspicion of terrorism, vehicle theft and falsifying documents.
A spokesman for the Court of Appeal in Lisbon told AFP on Thursday “the two suspected ETA members are going to be extradited”.
Madrid had issued a European arrest warrant for the pair.
Early this month police in the central Portuguese town of Obidos uncovered an ETA arms cache containing several hundred kilos of explosives.
Spain has expressed concerns that ETA may have moved its logistical operations to Portugal.
ETA is blamed for nearly 830 deaths in its 41-year armed struggle for independence for the Basque region of northern Spain and southwest France and is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and United States.