Five suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA appeared before a Paris anti-terrorist magistrate today, court sources said.
The five suspects, three men and two women, appeared before magistrate Laurence Le Vert charged with conspiracy, the court source said.
The group included the suspected head of logistics of ETA, Spanish-born Asier Oyarzabal Chapartegui, known as Baltza.
Two other Spanish nationals arrested with Chapartegui in southwest France on Sunday, Mr Oihane Errazquin-Galdos (28) and Ms Maria Dolores Lopez Resina (30) also appeared in court.
The other two defendants were Mr Didier Aguerre, a 25-year-old French national, and Spanish-born Mr Alberto Ilundai Iriarte (40). Mr Aguerre and Mr Iriarte were also arrested at the weekend near the central French city of Saint Etienne.
Spanish officials have hailed the weekend arrests as a major breakthrough in their campaign against ETA, which is waging a terror campaign to create a Basque homeland in the region of northern Spain bordering France.
Police said the five militants had been planning to steal industrial explosives from a site in the French Alps.
AFP