Europa Press National
Photo: AFP Archive
Europe Press. January 5, 2023
The former head of ETA Mikel Irastorza was sentenced this Thursday by the Paris Criminal Court to more than three years in prison for his membership in the terrorist organization between 2012 and 2016, according to the Basque media where Irastorza works as a journalist. Kazeta.eus.
Irastorza, 47 years old and a native of San Sebastián, was provisionally released in France in August 2017, after being arrested on November 5, 2016 in the Laborton town of Ascain accused of association of criminals with terrorist purposes in France.
Former ETA chief Mikel Irastorza sentenced in Paris to more than three years in prison
When he was arrested in an operation carried out by agents of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) in collaboration with the Civil Guard, the Ministry of the Interior considered him a member of the ETA leadership, the first leader of the gang after the fall of the members of the band's leadership Iratxe Sorzabal and David Plá in October 2011.
Mikel Irastorza had been missing since 2008 and was arrested along with a couple made up of Xabier Arin Baztarrika, 59, and Denise Arin, 56. The first of them was a historic member of the nationalist left who was previously sentenced to three years in prison for collaboration with an association of criminals.