Spain's Audiencia Nacional has rejected a bid to cancel the international arrest warrant for former ETA member Luis María Olalde, keeping extradition proceedings alive after he was pulled from earthquake rubble in Caracas on June 25.
Judge Francisco de Jorge ruled that the statute of limitations had not expired, citing a 2003 extradition request to Venezuela that interrupted the clock. Olalde, known by the alias "Txistu," is suspected of involvement in a 1979 bombing that killed three Civil Guard officers in the Basque Country before fleeing to Venezuela that same year. The criminal complaint, filed by victims' association Dignidad y Justicia, was admitted by the court earlier this month.
Olalde was identified after late-June tremors that killed more than 4,000 people in the San Bernardino neighbourhood. His wife, Alazne Solabarrieta, died in the same disaster. Spain had already sent a letter rogatory in May seeking information on 14 fugitive ETA members believed to be in Venezuela.