Police in France have detained one of the leaders of Basque separatist group ETA, David Pla, for extradition to Spain under a European arrest warrant on his alleged association with a terrorist organization, media reported
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2020) Police in France have detained one of the leaders of Basque separatist group ETA, David Pla, for extradition to Spain under a European arrest warrant on his alleged association with a terrorist organization, media reported.
In November, a court of appeals in Paris validated Pla's extradition requested that Spain issued back in 2011. By that time, Pla was already serving a prison term in France that, given the time he was held behind bars in pre-trial detention, was spent in domicile with mandatory semiweekly check-ins with police.
According to the French daily Le Figaro, Pla was arrested in the south-western-most French city of Hendaye when he attempted to check-in at a police station. Pla's lawyer, Xantiana Cachenaut, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that he would be extradited "in the coming hours or days."
The Basque separatist group, ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which translates as Homeland and Freedom), was established in 1959. Its terrorist activities left a total of 857 people killed by the time the group proclaimed an "indefinite and comprehensive ceasefire" in 2011. The Spanish government, in turn, demanded that the group officially dissolve, which happened in 2018.
Pla was arrested in France in 2015 and remained in pre-trial detention until a court in Paris sentenced him to five years in prison last February. If extradited to Spain, he faces a 12-year sentence.
