French Arrest Basque Leader for Terrorist Charges

On February 21, 2001, French judicial police arrested Francisco Javier Garcia Gaztelu, known as “Xapote”, in Anglet, close to the French border with Spain, on terrorism charges. Txapote was arrested with a companion, Stéphane Robindart, a member of a Basque nationalist youth group, Haika, while they sat on the beachfront terrace of the Havana café only six hours after a car bomb attributed to E.T.A. killed two workers in San Sebastián, Spain. The Bayonne judicial police, working with their Spanish counterparts, reportedly had Mr. Gaztelu under surveillance, but did not connect his detention to the car bombing. At the time of his arrest, Gaztelu was armed and carrying false Spanish identity papers…[more]