News

ETA member Mikel Mirena Otegi Unanue arrived in Spain on Wednesday following his extradition from France, where he was arrested in 2003, to be judged at the Spanish High Criminal Court for the murder in 1995 of two Basque Police agents, Iñaki Mendiluze and José Luis González in the Guipuzcoa town of Itsasondo, Home Office sources informed.

Otegi will appear on Thursday before Judge Baltasar Garzon to hear the charges brought against him in 2004 by the Basque Superior Justice and Constitutional Courts, which ordered a repeat of the trail originally carried out by the Provincial Court of Guipuzcoa, which originally acquitted Otegi.

Otegi will be questioned about his role in the murder of two Ertzaintzas (Basque Police officers) and will be informed of the details of his prosecution and subsequent prison term, as ordered by High Court prosecutor Carlos Bautista on 12th April.

The High Court were appointed to the case after the Provincial Court of Guipuzcoa decided to refrain from acting as prosecutors in pursuit of any crimes "committed by persons forming part of an armed group or linked to any terrorist or rebel group organizations".