Former leader of Basque terrorist group sentenced to prison
It is the first sentence in a case involving ETA from the National Court, which handles terrorism cases, since ETA announced last month "a definitive cessation of its armed activity," raising hopes that decades of separatist violence may finally be over.
The maximum that can be served in Spanish prison is 40 years, although courts often hand down a longer sentence for terrorist attacks. Spain has no death penalty.
In the sentence issued last Friday but made public on Monday, the court ruled that Francisco Javier Garcia Gaztelu, whom Spanish authorities called the military chief of ETA when he was captured in 2001, ordered the assassination of a Basque Socialist politician, Fernando Buesa.
Buesa and his bodyguard were killed in the Basque city of Vitoria in northern Spain in February 2000 when they walked past a vehicle that contained a hidden bomb that was exploded by remote control.
Garcia Gaztelu, now 45, was sentenced to 30 years each for the killings of Buesa and his bodyguard, 13 years each for two people injured in the attack, and additional time mainly for damage caused by the bomb, the court said.
The government, courts and police have said they will not halt the court cases pending against ETA operatives despite the outlawed group's announcement last month.
Listed as a terrorist organization by Spain, the United States and the European Union, ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its decades-long fight for an independent Basque state that it wants carved out of sections of northern Spain and southwestern France.
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