Top-level ETA suspect held near Paris

Jun 17, 2011, 11:27 GMT

Madrid - French police on Friday detained one of the most wanted suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, Spanish police sources said.

Inaki Dominguez Atxalandabaso, 36, was held near Paris as he was arriving on a train from Milan.

Dominguez is under investigation in connection with ETA's alleged cooperation with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Dominguez and another ETA suspect instructed FARC members in the use of explosives in the Latin American country in 2007, according to Spanish investigating magistrate Eloy Velasco.

Dominguez fled to Venezuela in 2003 to elude a prison sentence for praising terrorism.

He carried false identity documents and computer materials at the time of his arrest.

Dominguez' capture in northern France backs conjecture that ETA is increasingly moving its activities further northwards in order to escape police pressure in Spain and southern France, the daily El Pais said on its website.

ETA, which is listed as terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, has killed about 850 people since 1968 in its campaign for a sovereign Basque state. The group has observed a ceasefire since September.

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