Spain requests US aid in extradition of ETA members from Cuba News
Spain requests US aid in extradition of ETA members from Cuba

The Spanish government has requested that the US use diplomatic discussions with Cuba regarding the country’s removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism [State Dept. list] blacklist to seek the extradition of two members of the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) [Britannica backgrounder; JURIST news archive] residing in Cuba, according to a statement Monday from Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo [official profile]. ETA members Jose Angel Urtiaga and Jose Ignacio Etxarte are believed to have resided in Cuba since the 1980s and are wanted [AP report] in connection to 2010 Spanish government probe into possible connections between ETA and the Colombian rebel group FARC [NCTC backgrounder]. Cuba has been on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list since 1982 as a result of the country’s past support of ETA and FARC.

In January Spain’s Interior Ministry [official website] announced the arrest of 16 individuals for alleged connections with ETA. Twelve of the individuals arrested were lawyers, while the other four were treasurers for a group that represents ETA prisoners. In November 2013 the Spanish National Court [official website, in Spanish] ordered the release of 13 members of ETA in compliance with a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] ruling [judgment; press release, PDF] made the month before. The ECHR decision overturned the “Parot Doctrine” [LOC backgrounder] which had effectively allowed for life imprisonment despite the thirty-year prison limit set by Spain’s 1973 Penal Code.

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