23 April 2008

MADRID - France handed over to Spain on Tuesday two suspected Basque separatists who are believed to be responsible for a bomb attack that killed two people at Madrid's airport in 2006, the interior ministry said.

The two, Joseba Iturbide, 30, and Mikel San Sebastian, 29, were arrested in southwestern France on 15 February.

They are wanted in Spain in connection with the December 2006 bomb blast that killed two Ecuadoran men as they slept in their cars in the car park at Madrid's airport.

The armed Basque separatist group ETA claimed responsibility for the attack, but said it had not been intended to hurt anyone.

Following the bombing, Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero broke off talks he had been holding with the organisation.

ETA formally called off a 15-month-old ceasefire in June 2007.

Since then, the Spanish authorities have taken a hard line against it, arresting suspected members of the group and its banned political wing Batasuna.

On 6 January, police in Spain's northern Basque Country arrested two other men in connection with the airport bombing.

[AFP / Expatica]