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9 June 2004
PARIS – France extradited to Spain Wednesday the purported former chief of the Basque terrorist group ETA, who was convicted in Spain on two murder counts, officials told EFE.
Juan Luis Aguirre Lete, also known as “Insuntza”, was found guilty of murdering Socialist politician Fernando Mugica and Gen Dionisio Herrero.
Aguirre Lete, who was transferred to Madrid by air, was turned over to Spanish authorities after serving a prison term in France.
A Paris court convicted him in 2000 of conspiring with a terrorist group and handed him the maximum prison sentence for the crime.
At the time of his arrest in November 1996 in the French Basque country, Aguirre Lete was considered the operations chief of the ETA cell in France.
In 2002, he was taken to Spain temporarily to undergo trials on several charges, including the murders of Mugica and Herrero, for which the Audencia Nacional gave him 30- and 66-year prison sentences, respectively.
The ETA leader was sent back to France in March 2003 to finish his sentence.
In addition to facing prison time in Spain, Aguirre Lete must also stand trial for his involvement in the kidnapping of prison official Jose Antonio Ortega Lara.
At the time of Aguirre Lete’s arrest in France, authorities confiscated a note from him alluding to Ortega Lara.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news