The Belgian authorities, collaborating with the Spanish police, have arrested ETA member Ventura Tomé Queiruga who is wanted for the fulfillment of two sentences relating to attacks carried out in the eighties.
He is the first ETA member to be detained since the announcement by ETA of a permanent cessation of violence.
Queiruga is accused of involvement with the ‘comando Saioa’ before fleeing to France in 1990. The group placed bombs in banks, supermarkets and bars in Guipuzcoa and Navarra and on April 3rd 1985 placed a booby trap which injured a Guardia Civil officer.
The group are also suspected of placing explosive devices in Egea de los Caballeros (Zaragoza) and three cities in Navarras, namely Estella, Hunzúe and Sangüesa.
Ventura Tomé Queiruga was born in Pasajes, Guipúzcoa, but moved to Tafalla in Navarra. Two years after fleeing to France he was arrested near the border by French police and served a two year sentence for links with ETA in the French area of Brittany.