Spanish judge orders imprisonment of 7 members of Bizkaia cell

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Garzon ordered the imprisonment of seven people. Photo: EFE

Spanish High Court judge Baltasar Garzon ordered on Sunday the imprisonment of seven presumed members and collaborators of the Basque armed group ETA’s Bizkaia cell. The alleged leader of the cell Arkaitz Goikoetxea was among the imprisoned.

Garzon released Adur Aristegi on €12,000 bail and set Inge Urrutia and Libe Agirre free.

The judge took that decision on the request of the public prosecutor Dolores Delgado, after taking statements on Saturday from the ten people arrested.

The public prosecutor Dolores Delgado accused Arkaitz Goikoetxea of being the perpetrator of ten crimes, as the murder of the Spanish policeman Juan Manuel Piñuel on May 14 and the attempts to kidnap the Socialist Basque councilor Benjamin Atutxa and kill the top anti-terror judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

During his statement, Goikoetxea admitted he was a member of Bizkaia cell. However, he refused to answer questions about the crimes they committed and those they were planning to commit.

Garzon also ordered the imprisonment of Goikoetxea’s girlfriend Maialen Zuazo Arruekoetxea and Ana Isabel Prieto Furundarena, arrested together with the alleged chief of the cell in the Basque city of Bilbao.

Gaizka Jareño, Adur Aristegi, Mikel Saracho Moro, Iñigo Gutierrez and Aitor Kotano Sinde were also arrested.