ETA bomb plotters get 2,775-year sentences

A Spanish court sentenced two members of the armed Basque group ETA to 2,775 years in prison each for planting a bomb on a train packed with holiday travellers heading to Madrid on Christmas Eve of 2003.

The bomb – set to explode in the Spanish capital’s Chamartin rail station - was found hours before the train arrived and no-one was injured.

The court sentenced Garikoitz Arruarte Santacruz and Gorka Loran Lafourcade to 15 years for each of the 184 passengers and rail staff it said would have been killed if the bombs had exploded. The sentence was issued today, but dated April 29.

The court said that although the bomb was timed to go off after the train arrived in Madrid and unloaded its passengers, the two ETA members were aware it could have detonated at any time.

The 44lb bomb had been placed on board the train heading to Madrid from Irun, a Basque town on the border with France. Authorities evacuated the train in the northern city of Burgos and removed the bomb.

Police foiled the plot after arresting Arruarte in the northern Basque city of San Sebastian early on December 24 with a second bomb that was to have been put on the train. Loran, who had placed the bomb on the train, was arrested later in the day in a nearby town.

ETA, which stands for Basque Homeland and Liberty in the Basque language, has killed more than 800 people since taking up arms in 1968 for Basque independence. Its last fatal attack was in May 2003, when it killed two police officers in a car bomb.

Arruarte and Loran, both in their mid-20s, also received a further 15 years imprisonment each for membership of an armed group and other terrorism charges, including having planted small explosive devices on rail lines earlier in December 2003.

The sentence is symbolic, as the maximum amount of time a person can serve for terrorism charges in Spain is 40 years.