Britain hands over three ETA suspects to Spain

Jan 8, 2008, 14:28 GMT

London - Three people wanted by the Spanish authorities for alleged membership of the armed separatist group ETA were extradited to Spain from Britain Tuesday, Scotland Yard said in London.

Inigo Maria Albisu Hernandez, 24, Zigor Ruiz Jaso, 29, and Ana Isabel Lopez Monge, 36, were caught in the Sheffield area, in northern England, in April last year.

A few days earlier, the Spanish authorities had issued a European arrest warrants alleging that the two men and one woman 'participated in an attack in Spain where an explosive device caused damage to a naval building' in early 2006.

According to the warrants, the Spanish authorities had 'information showing that these three individuals are in Great Britain, waiting to receive instructions from their superiors in order to travel to Spain and commit terrorist attacks.'

Last month the suspects appealed to the High Court in London against orders for their extradition made by a district judge in London last August.

Their lawyers argued the warrants were defective and returning them to Spain would violate their right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, and deprive them of other protections under the European Convention on Human Rights.