News

Spain''s opposition conservatives blamed the government for the apparent escape from Spain of a convicted member of the armed group ETA who was released by a court and ordered re-arrested just days later.

The Popular Party''s spokeswoman Maria Dolores de Cospedal said police should have monitored Antonio Troitiño after he was freed April 13 after serving 24 years in prison.

"The government has to accept its responsibility," she told reporters.

Troitino had been sentenced to more than 2,000 years over the deaths of 22 people in attacks by the armed group ETA. Such long sentences are common in ETA-related convictions in Spain.

The maximum time he could have served was 30 years, and he got out early because judges deducted time he spent in jail while awaiting trial.

But they revoked his release a week later, and issued a warrant for his arrest, after a Supreme Court ruling in a separate case showed they had calculated the reduction wrong.

Police have launched a manhunt but failed to find the fugitive. Spanish media reports say he is believed to have fled the country.

Another member of the Popular Party, former interior minister Jaime Mayor Oreja, reiterated accusations that the government is negotiating with ETA, which declared a permanent ceasefire in January, and that the flight of Troitiño is no coincidence. The government has adamantly denied it is negotiating with ETA, as it did in 2006 when ETA also declared a ceasefire that ended up lasting just nine months.

"When there is a process of negotiation between ETA and the government, nothing or almost nothing happens by chance," Mayor Oreja said in an interview published Friday in the newspaper La Gaceta.

Pedro Sanchez, a Socialist lawmaker, responded by demanding the Popular Party disavow Mayor Oreja''s comments.