A NOTORIOUS Basque terrorist who killed 25 people in a series of gun attacks and bombings has moved to Dublin after his release from a Spanish prison.

Inaki de Juana Chaos, 52, was sentenced to 3,000 years in prison for a series of murders committed in the 1980s, but was freed in August. He is now living at a house in Killester in north Dublin. De Juana applied for a Spanish passport at his country’s embassy on September 3, which has led gardai to suspect that he may be planning to move outside the EU.

Special Branch and Crime and Security, the garda’s spying agency, are monitoring his movements at the request of Interpol and the Spanish Secret Service.

De Juana moved to Dublin in early August after serving 21 years in prison. He first travelled to Biarritz where he caught a Ryanair flight to Dublin. Gardai were alerted to his arrival by Interpol, which is tracking his movements.

It is understood that De Juana has met members of Sinn Fein including Jim Monaghan, one of the Colombia Three who was suspected of training terrorists in South America.

The reason behind his move to Dublin is unclear, according to intelligence sources. “De Juana has met with a number of republicans since he arrived. He has said that he’s here to learn English but that is unlikely,” said a security source. “It may well be that he is staying in Dublin simply to avoid the media circus that his release prompted in Spain.”

De Juana’s release provoked protests in Spain. The terrorist qualified for early release in 2004, but was given a further term of three years over threats he made in two articles he wrote for a Basque newspaper.

He staged a hunger strike in protest at the new sentence, and doctors eventually intervened. The sentence was reduced on appeal.

De Juana is the former head of Eta’s Madrid cell and was regarded as one of the most committed members of the Basque separatist group during the 1980s. He was convicted in 1987 for his part in 25 deaths, including machine-gunning a car containing three soldiers and planting a car bomb that killed 12 military policemen.

He is one of the few identifiable faces of Eta, which is fighting for an independent Basque country in northwest Spain and southwest France, and has killed more than 800 people.

Gardai are keen to establish the nature of his relationship with republican activists. Monaghan declined to comment.

Garda headquarters have asked senior officers to reduce overtime and expenses payments in order to avoid running over budget. Gardai in rural divisions say they are experiencing a credit squeeze, with management instructing regional commanders to cut spending. The force was €25m over budget last year.

Senior officers in charge of the western division say they are under particular pressure to cut costs. A significant portion of its budget has been spent on policing protests at the Corrib gas plant at Bellanaboy in Co Mayo. Policing the protest since 2006 had cost more than €11m in garda overtime up to last month.

Garda departments in Dublin are also monitoring overtime, expense payments and subsistence allowances.

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