MADRID, SPAIN — Spain’s National Court on Sunday jailed seven people on charges of belonging to a militant cell of the Basque separatist group ETA.
The cell is believed responsible for a string of recent bombings, and investigators believe its members were planning more attacks.
The seven will be held in provisional preventive custody pending a full trial, anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon said in a statement. A date for the trial was not given.
All seven were detained Tuesday in police raids in the Basque towns of Getxo and Elorrio. Among those jailed was the suspected leader of the cell, Arkaitz Goikoetxea.
Garzon said the cell was suspected of having perpetrated many recent attacks, including the May car bombing of a police barracks in Legutiano, northern Spain, in which one officer died.
After the detentions, Goikoetxea led officers to two caches of explosives and other terror-related material, including tranquilizers to sedate kidnap victims, the judge said in the statement.
Goikoetxea acknowledged during questioning taking orders directly from ETA’s top military strategist, Garikoitz Azpiazu, Garzon said. Azpiazu’s whereabouts is unknown.
The cell had planned to establish a permanent ETA base in Portugal, the statement said. There was evidence that it was planning a chain of attacks in August, during Spain’s peak tourist period, in the southern, Mediterranean province of Andalucia, Garzon said.
The other jailed suspects were identified as Maialen Zuazo Aurrecoechea, Ana Isabel Furendarena, Inigo Gutierrez Carrillo, Mikel Saracho Moro, Aitor Cotano Sinde and Gaizka Jareno Ugarriza.
Garzon released one suspect, Adur Aristegui Aragon, on bail and released another person arrested Tuesday without charges. He issued international arrest and extradition warrants for Azpiazu, also known as “Txeroki,” and for other suspects identified as Aiztol Iriondo, Olga Comes Arambillet, Aitor Arteche Rodriguez and Asier Borrero Toribio.
Police operations in Spain and France have captured 12 ETA suspects in the past week.
ETA — considered a terrorist group by Spain, the European Union and the U.S. — has waged a violent armed campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and western France since 1968. It is blamed for killing more than 820 people, including security force members, politicians and civilians.
