Spain Confirms Arrest of Top ETA Leaders

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Spain Confirms Arrest of Top ETA Leaders

Spain on Tuesday confirmed that ETA's two top leaders had been arrested in a police operation in southwestern France.

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Spain on Tuesday confirmed that ETA's two top leaders had been arrested in a police operation in southwestern France.

Speaking to the press, Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Juan Antonio Olarra and Ainhoa Mugica were arrested near Bordeaux on Monday night and they are both named on EU and US lists of most wanted international terrorists.

Olarra, 35, has 20 arrest warrants outstanding against him, 11 of them international warrants, and Mugica, 32, is wanted on nine national and three international arrest warrants, Acebes said.

A French woman, Saroya Galarraga, was also arrested in the operation, said Acebes, adding that she was in charge of providing cover for ETA members in France and renting apartments for them.

French police said Olarra and Mugica, both from San Sebastian in Spain's northern Basque region, are a couple.

ETA is blamed for more than 800 killings during its 34-year campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at carving an independent Basque homeland out of territory straddling northern Spain and southwest France.

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