Basque separatists jailed for kidnapping

A three-judge panel has convicted two former leaders of the armed Basque separatist group of ordering the kidnapping of a prison official and sentenced them to 32 years in prison.

Julian Atxurra Egurola and Juan Luis Aguirre Lete were convicted of terrorist kidnapping with malice and conspiracy to commit murder, a court official said today.

The armed Basque separatist group Eta abducted Jose Antonio Ortega Lara in January 1996 and kept him in a 9ft by 7ft windowless room for 532 days and demanded improved conditions for 450 jailed Eta members as the condition of his release.

Eta’s longest kidnapping stunned Spain and spurred thousands to take to the streets to protest against the armed group.

In 1998, the four Eta members who abducted Ortega Lara were convicted and sentenced to 32 years in prison. Jesus Maria Uribechevarria Bolinaga, Javier Ugarte Villar, Jose Luis Erostegui Bidaguren and Jose Miguel Gaztelu were arrested hours before police rescued the captive from a hideout in the northern town of Mondragon.

Eta, whose name stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has killed more than 800 people, mostly Spanish security force members, since 1968 in its campaign for an independent Basque state.