France authorizes Spain to try former ETA chief Kantauri for death of Miguel Angel Blanco

The French Justice has given its approval on Wednesday for Spain to judge the former military leader of ETA José Javier Arizkuren Ruiz, Kantauri, for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of the PP councilor in Ermua Miguel Ángel Blanco in July 1997. The instruction chamber of the Court of Appeal of Paris has authorized the extension of the delivery of "Kantauri", as requested by the judge of the National Court Joaquín Gadea in a European order of November 2021.

The president of the investigation chamber has listed the charges for which he is charged in Spain, in particular for the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco, but also for terrorism. He has also given an account of the penalties to which he could be sentenced, if convicted, which are between 20 and 30 years for the crime of murder.

The National Court claimed him for the alleged responsibility that Arizkuren had as head of the gang commandos when the young councilor of the PP of Ermua, 29, was kidnapped on July 10, 1997 when getting off a train in Eibar (Gipuzkoa), on his way to work. According to the accusation, Kantauri gave the order to capture him in order to demand within 48 hours the release and approach to the Basque Country of ETA prisoners, under threat of execution. That is what happened on July 12 in a forest area of Lasarte, where Blanco was found still alive with two shots to the head, wounds from which he died shortly after.

The signature of Arizkuren Ruiz had appeared in letters found in the registry in 1997 of the apartment occupied in Basauri (Bizkaia) by the command in charge of operations. Kantauri has been in Spain for years serving a sentence for other acts, and is currently out of prison with an electronic bracelet for health reasons. As he was arrested in France in 1999, in order to be able to sit in the dock for the facts related to the death of the PP councilor, the Paris Court of Appeal had to authorize him, as it had already done when he was handed over for another cause, in November 2006.