ETA bombers each get 743 years in jail

MADRID, Spain -- Two leaders of the outlawed Basque separatist group ETA each have been sentenced to 743 years in prison for the 1987 bombing of a Spanish military bus that killed two people and injured 44.

The lengthy sentences, accumulated for a series of offences, were chiefly symbolic because in Spain prison terms are limited to 30 years.

ETA has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its drive to carve out an independent state in Basque areas of northern Spain and southwestern France. The United States and European Union list ETA as a terrorist organization.

According to the court sentence, Francisco "Pakito" Mugica "was in charge of directing the ETA commandos from France" and proposed that a group of four militants attack the bus carrying officers of the military academy in the city of Zaragoza.

The other man, Jose Maria "Fiti" Arregui, assisted the four-man team, decided they should use a truck bomb, and provided it for them, the sentence said.

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The explosion killed the driver and one officer and injured 28 others on the bus plus 16 people nearby.

Pakito and Fiti were arrested in France in 1992 and extradited to Spain in 2000. Several others in the bus attack also have been captured and sentenced.

Last month, ETA claimed responsibility for several bombings this year, including a series of attacks during a recent European Union summit.

As many as seven people were injured in the attacks in Fuengirola, Marbella and Mijas on the south coast and in the central and northern cities of Zaragoza and Santander.

They took place over a 48-hour period that coincided with a June 21-22 European Union meeting in the southern city of Seville.

ETA said its aim was to damage "Spain's tourist and economic interests."

The Spanish government recently approved a law it hopes would allow the courts to ban the Basque separatist party Batasuna, which is connected to ETA.

The law has angered Batasuna as well as the more moderate Basque Nationalist Party, which governs the northern region.