13.01.11 - 10:21 -
Spain confirmed its tough stance against ETA when two suspected Basque terrorists were arrested just 18 hours after the ceasefire statement was released. A joint operation between French and Spanish security forces resulted in the arrest of a man considered to be one the organisation’s top computer technicians and his girlfriend. Both are accused of having travelled to Venezuela in recent years to take part in computer encryption courses for ETA and the Colombian based guerrilla organisation, FARC.
Twenty-seven year old computer expert Iraitz Gesalaga, alias ‘Tximas’ was arrested at 6.20 a.m. on Tuesday at his home in the French town of Ciboure, just ten kilometres from the Spanish border. Just one minute later his girlfriend, Itxaso Urtiaga Valderrama, a 21 year old Philosophy student, was detained at her home in Zarautz, in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa. She is accused of helping her boyfriend give technical advice to ETA and perhaps also to the FARC.
