MADRID (Sputnik) — A member of the Basque terrorist organization ETA, Carlos Garcia Preciado, who had been on the run since 2000, was detained in Rome on Wednesday, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.
“ETA fugitive Carlos Garcia Preciado detained in Rome,” the ministry said on Twitter.
#ULTIMAHORA: Detenido en Roma el miembro huido de ETA Carlos García Preciado
— Ministerio Interior (@interiorgob) February 25, 2015
Local Spanish media reported at the time of arrest that Preciado had forged documents.
After Preciado burned a bank in the Basque Country in August 1997, he was sentenced to 16 years in Spanish prison for participation in terrorist activities. In 2006, a French court also sentenced Preciado to 3 years in prison for being a member of a terrorist group.
ETA, "Basque Homeland and Liberty", is a separatist organization in Spain that used terrorism as a way of highlighting the cause of Basque independence. It has killed more than 800 people in terrorist attacks over the last 50 years, according to the Spanish government. However, in October 2011, ETA declared a "definitive cessation of its armed activity". No attacks have been registered since.
