Overview
- The Paris Court of Appeal, which opened hearings Thursday, is trying José Antonio Urrutikoetxea for alleged ETA membership from 2002 to 2005.
- Urrutikoetxea was convicted in absentia in 2010, was arrested in the French Alps in 2019 after 17 years underground, and has lived under judicial supervision in France since 2020.
- The case has been repeatedly delayed over his health after a court doctor found hypertension, and the defense protested missing witnesses linked to ETA disarmament efforts, including Gerry Kelly and Brian Currin.
- The trial’s end will determine whether France executes two Spanish European arrest warrants already approved, covering the 1987 Zaragoza barracks bombing and alleged financing through herriko tabernas, with a third Spanish request still under review.
- The hearings are set for two days with no set date for a ruling, and any conviction could bring up to 10 years in prison while further appeals in France could stretch out any handover under the EU arrest-warrant system.