Missing ETA member found dead in morgue

The body of a suspected member of the armed Basque group ETA has turned up in a morgue in France nearly a year after his mysterious disappearance, his supporters said today.

Jon Anza Ortunez, 47, was last seen on April 18, 2009. In a statement released to a newspaper last May, ETA claimed him as a member and blamed Spanish police for a role in his disappearance, a claim Spain has denied.

ETA said Anza had been transporting a large sum of money between the French cities of Bayonne and Toulouse for the group when he vanished.

The body lay in a morgue in Toulouse unidentified for 10 months until a connection was made between Anza’s disappearance and the corpse. It was not immediately clear how the link was made.