French Police Arrest Key ETA Figures

03/04/2004| IslamWeb

French police have made another significant arrest of a senior ETA member in south-west France, near Angouleme. The man is reported to be Felix Alberto Lopez de la Calle, otherwise known as "Mobutu", and is thought to be the Basque terrorist group's military leader. He was arrested along with three other people, including his girlfriend and fellow ETA member Mercedes Chivita Beranga, after having been on the run for years. "Mobutu" had earlier been arrested by French police and served a prison sentence, but spectacularly escaped from the police station in Aubusson in November 2000 as his extradition to Spain was being prepared. French police had been looking for him ever since. Earlier in the day French police also arrested the man thought to be ETA's head of logistics, Felix Ignacio Esparza Luri, or "Navarro", near Dax, also in southwestern France. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Basque activists who had been ensconced, watch behind a gate shortly before their arrest by police. (AFP/File/Jean-Daniel Chopin)