The alleged former chief of the armed separatist group ETA today appealed for an independent Basque state as he stood trial on charges that could add 10 years to the five-year jail sentence he is already serving.
Ignacio Gracia Arregui, 47, already in prison for crimes committed in France before 1999, asked France and Spain to free convicted ETA militants and recognise the Basque Country's right to self-determination in return for an end to violence.
"We want to make a message of peace in the name of our organisation. France and Spain are collaborating to crush the Basque Country. We are the only ones offering peace proposals," Gracia Arregui, on trial with his wife and another ETA suspect, told the Paris criminal court.
"With the release of our prisoners and the right to self-determination of the Basque country, peace is possible from tomorrow," he said, speaking Basque, through an interpreter.
Gracia Arregui, whose nom de guerre is Inaki de Renteria, and his 37-year-old French wife Fabienne Tapia were arrested in a swoop by French police on their villa near the Spanish border in September 2000 which turned up a huge stash of arms, false identity papers and two stolen cars.
Prosecutors say documents seized in the arrest suggest Gracia Arregui was in charge of ETA's finances, weapons supply and strategy.
One of Europe's most violent guerrilla groups, ETA has killed 838 people since 1968 to press its demands for an independent state in northern Spain and southwestern France.
Gracia Arregui is also suspected of masterminding a failed assassination attempt on Spain's King Juan Carlos in 1995.
Appearing relaxed in court on Thursday, Gracia Arregui immediately requested a Basque language interpreter. The trial is due to run until Friday.
On trial with Gracia Arregui and Tapia is a third alleged ETA militant, Juan Antonio Guridi, arrested last September. All three defendants could face sentences of 10 years if convicted.
The trial comes days after prison officers at the La Sante prison in Paris foiled a daring scheme by jailed ETA suspects to blast their way out of the high-walled jail with explosives smuggled in inside food containers.
Separately, documents seized in a December raid on a hideout used by ETA military commander Ibon Fernandez Iradi are alleged to show the group was plotting to assassinate anti-terrorist judge Laurence Le Vert, who specialises in ETA cases.
Fernandez Iradi bolted from French police headquarters in Bayonne, near the border with Spain, two days after his arrest.
Three policemen were suspended over the escape after an official report pointed to negligence. Police in France and Spain have stepped up cooperation in the fight against ETA in recent months, arresting dozens of suspects, amid fears of a deadly bombing spree over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.