Basque terrorists jailed for 515 years

Dec 28, 2010, 16:41 GMT

Madrid - Two members of the Basque separatist movement ETA have received prison terms of 515 years each for a car bomb attack that killed a policeman, according to the verdict published Tuesday.

Judges at the National Court in Madrid said the pair detonated the car bomb outside a paramilitary Civil Guards barracks in May 2008 with the aim as killing as many policeman as possible.

Some 27 officers and family members were in the building when the bomb went off with advance warning in the middle of the night, causing part of the facade to collapse.

The two men were convicted of one count of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder. They were also ordered to pay more than 1 million dollars compensation to the family of the dead man and other residents of the barracks.

According to Spanish law the pair will not have serve more than 40 years of their sentence.

ETA has been blamed for more than 850 deaths since 1960 in its campaign for Basque self rule. It declared a ceasefire in September this year.

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