Judge moves to seize assets of ETA political wing

The political wing of the Basque separatist group Eta is liable for multi-million pound damages stemming from street violence by pro-Eta youths, a Spanish judge ruled.

Judge Baltasar Garzon ordered the Basque party Batasuna to post a bond of £15 million by 3:00pm tomorrow or have that amount of property confiscated.

Garzon said Batasuna is essentially a front for Eta and has routinely organised street violence in the Basque region in which pro-Eta youths burn buses, smash bank windows and destroy other property.

From June 2001 until February this year, Garzon calculated the damage at £11.4 million. But that figure is provisional, and until the damage is determined once and for all, Garzon said he was setting the bond higher, at £15 million.

Batasuna said it cannot pay, and condemned Garzon’s order as a de facto banning of the party.

Parliament last month passed a bill with which the government hopes to formally outlaw the party as an accomplice to Eta, which has killed more than 800 people in its three decade campaign for an independent Basque homeland.

Several British tourists have been injured by bomb blasts in Spain in recent weeks. The attacks were claimed by Eta, and appeared intended to harm the Madrid government by targeting resort areas and threatening tourism revenues.