27 September 2008 - 08H14
Police release suspected ETA sympathisers
French authorities said the 14 people arrested this week as part of a major operation targeting Basque separatist groups in southwest France have been released. No charges were brought against them.
French authorities said Saturday 14 people arrested this week in a major operation within the Basque separatist movement in southwest France have been released after no charges were brought against them.
The 14 people -- not 12 as originally reported -- were released from custody "in stages starting Friday night into the early hours of Saturday," said the Paris prosecutor's office, which is in charge of anti-terrorism throughout France.
Seven of the arrests were in connection with the 2006 attack on the hotel in the southern French town of Bidarry and five others were part of a probe into the financing of Basque groups, a legal source in Paris had said on Wednesday.
The detainees had been held since Wednesday in several cities in the southwestern Basque region such as Bayonne and Pau and included two senior figures of the separatist political party Batasuna.
Batasuna is legal in France but banned in Spain because it is the political wing of the armed group ETA, blamed for the deaths of 824 people over four decades in a campaign for a Basque homeland straddling northern Spain and parts of southwestern France.
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