'ETA leader' arrested

on 28/10/2012 16:19:55

Spain's Interior Ministry says an alleged leader of the Basque separatist group ETA has been arrested in eastern France.

The ministry said Izaskun Lesaka and another suspected member of the violent armed band were arrested in a hotel in Macon. The suspects had been tracked by a special operations tactical unit of the French National Police and were both armed at the time of their arrest.

ETA is considered a terrorist organisation by Spain, the US and the European Union and is blamed for the killings of more than 825 people in a violent campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque state straddling the border with France.