Bayonne, France.- Five French citizens were arrested in Bayonne in a joint operation conducted by the French police and the Guardia Civil against the organization’s separatist armed basque ETA, raided an arsenal, but the detainees claimed that their goal was to destroy the weapons.
The operation against ETA took place in the town of Louhossoa, situated on the road between Bayonne and St. jean pied de Port, in the southwest of France, near the border with Spain.
All of the detainees are French nationals and during the operation, agents seized an arsenal composed of weapons, explosives and ammunition," reported the French ministry of Interior.
A source close to the case reported that among those arrested was the lawyer and activist Michel Tubiana, former president of the oenegé French League of the Rights of Man.
Tubiana gave the lie to be among those arrested, but noted the French newspaper Le Monde that he planned to be in the place where occurred the arrests, already reduced into a "voluntary process of ETA for the disarmament."
According to the sources, the other detainees are Jean-Noël Etcheverry, the leader of the environmental group Bizi!, a basque organisation whose name means "to Live", Michel Berhocoirigoin, the former president of the Chamber of Agriculture Alternative of the Basque Country, Michel Bergougnan, a member of a cooperative wine-growing, and the journalist Béatrice Haran-Molle, owner of the home where they made the arrests.
Several nationalist organizations alleged that there was "a police operation is underway to prevent the civil society to proceed to the destruction of weapons of ETA".
The operation was carried out at the request of the public prosecutor anti-terrorism in Paris and was executed by agents of the Directorate-General of Internal Security (DGSI), a French member of the Brigade of research and Intervention (BRI) and the assault units in police Raid, with the collaboration of the Guardia Civil.
"The civil Guard delivers a blow against the arsenals of the terrorist group ETA in France," confirmed on Twitter the ministry of the Interior Spanish.
For the governments French and Spanish, "the arrest of five individuals in relation to the ETA terrorist organization" constitutes "a new blow" against the group, said the French Interior minister, Bruno Le Roux, in a press release in which it welcomed the existing cooperation between the two police officers.
Called to manifest
"The history and messages that circulated the social networks point to a new attempt to prevent the disarmament of ETA," said the newspaper Gara, which often publishes communiqués of ETA.
The page Mediabask, a half close to Gara issued a letter dated October 25, Michel Tubiana, Jean-Noël Etcheverry and Michel Berhocoirigoin expressing his desire "to put in motion the process of disarmament".
This deposit "corresponds to about 15% of the arsenal of ETA", indicated.
The member of parliament, Jean Lassalle, defended in a statement to Etcheverry, known as Txetx, and "denounced the machiavellian drifts authoritarian French State".
Several nationalist organizations called Saturday for a mobilization in Bayonne at 16H00 local time (15H00 GMT).
In the village of Ascain, also close to Bayonne, was arrested on the 5th of last November, Mikel Irastorza, considered as the maximum leader of ETA, who was indicted by the French authorities for criminal association for terrorist purposes.
ETA, founded in 1959, is considered responsible for the death of over 800 people in more than 40 years of armed struggle for the independence of the Basque Country and Navarre.
In 2010, the separatist organization announced the end of the attacks, and a year later renounced the armed struggle, but they refused to surrender their weapons and disband, as required by the Spanish government and the French.
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