The National Court opened in 2005 the order in which Urrutikoetxea was clandestine. He was arrested in 2019 on the condition that he was released by French Justice, and in that same year the Spanish justice requested his extradition, based on this murder. The man, suffering from a serious illness, was arrested in the Alps on his way to a hospital to treat him. Urrutikoetxea has always denied that it had anything to do with this attack, among other things because the attack was claimed by the ETApm organization and because he remained in ETA when the armed organization was split up in 1974.

However, the National Hearing remained on the sidelines and on 6 January the Paris Court of Appeal welcomed Urrutikoetxea’s involvement in the action and accepted extradition. The investigating judge has now admitted the error and has asked the National Court to withdraw the complaint. The request is based on a report by the Civil Guard in this regard, according to which Urrutxikoetxea remained in ETA at the time the division occurred.

He is still in danger of extradition

Despite the suspension of this case, Urrutikoetxea is in a difficult situation and is in danger of being extradited to Spain. Paris already condemned him in 2010 and 2017, but as he escaped at the time of the oral case, he has the right to repeat the trial and will do so.

For two other reasons, Paris has accepted the extradition of Urrutikoetxea, one of the people ' s taverns, and the other, for the attack on the Zaragoza Civil Guard headquarters, accused of ordering it.

Urrutikoetxea has an important role to play in the end of the armed struggle by ETA and, as he has explained on several occasions, has focused on several talks and negotiation sessions involving mediation over the past 20 years. It is well known that it participated in the negotiations held by ETA and the Spanish Government in Switzerland and that, to this end, the French State gave it its diplomatic support.