1,500-year sentences for Basque bombers

Two Basque terrorists were jailed for than 1,500 years each today for a car bombing that killed 12 police and injured 77, one of Spain’s bloodiest attacks ever.

A three-judge panel at the National Court in Madrid sentenced Santi Potros and Idoia Lopez Riano, both members of Eta, to a total of 3,492 years in prison.

But under Spanish law the maximum amount of time they can actually serve is 30 years.

Eta, or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna – which means Basque Homeland and Freedom in the Basque language – has taken responsibility for the murders of more than 800 people during a 35 year campaign for independence of the Basque region of northern Spain.

The sentence said Potros and Lopez Riano, alias The Tigress, filled a van with explosives and detonated them by remote control when a police convoy drove by in Madrid on July 15 1986.