Government vows to support ETA terrorist hunt

The Government tonight vowed to give whatever support it could in the hunt for one of Spain's most notorious convicted ETA terrorists wanted by Interpol.

Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, who was released from jail in August, is believed to still be in Ireland, having applied for a passport at the Spanish Embassy in Dublin three weeks ago.

The 52-year-old, who is also known under his Basque name as Inaki de Juana Chaos, was sentenced to 3,000 years in prison for his part in 25 murders committed in the 1980s.

He initially served 18 years and was granted early release in 2004 only to be sentenced to a further three years for making threats.

The convicted terrorist, who was released in August, is now wanted by a Spanish judge to answer charges that he praised or supported terrorism in a letter on his release in the summer.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said Gardaí would give whatever support they could in the hunt for Inaki.

"As far as I'm concerned and the Government is concerned, Ireland should not have terrorists, either indigenous or foreign, on our shores,'' he said.

"If any request comes from any other country in relation to their own terrorists who are running around the world, we will cooperate as we always do.''

It is believed Inaki may have travelled to Ireland on his Spanish national identity card on August 4, two days after he was released from jail after serving a total of 21 years for terrorist offences.

Embassy sources confirmed he applied for the passport in person at the diplomatic offices in Ballsbridge on September 3rd, and claimed he was in the city to learn the Irish language.