Juan Carlos: UK arrests over Spanish king `murder plot`

07.07.2011 [16:58]
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Baku, July 7 (AZERTAC). A Spanish man has been arrested in the UK on suspicion of an attempted assassination of the king of Spain in 1997, police said.

Eneko Gogeaskoetxea Arronategui - believed to be a member of the Basque separatist group Eta - was apprehended in an intelligence-led operation in Cambridge, officers said.

The 44-year-old is due to appear before City of Westminster magistrates later.

Spain believes he fled after trying to kill King Juan Carlos in October 1997.

`Addresses searched`

Police say searches are under way at a residential address and two business addresses in Cambridge.

Mr Arronategui was allegedly part of a cell that plotted to kill Spain`s King Juan Carlos when he attended the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao on 18 October 1997.

He is suspected of participation in an armed gang, attempted assassination of the king, terrorism resulting in death, possession of weapons, theft and forgery, according to his European arrest warrant.

Eta, a militant group which has fought for an independent Basque homeland for decades, has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in Spain.

The group has been linked to several assassination plots on Juan Carlos. who became king in 1975.

Juan Carlos: UK arrests over Spanish king `murder plot`

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