ETA members get 50 years for general’s shooting 01/08/2006 00:00

1 August 2006

MADRID – Two ETA members were on Tuesday jailed for 50 years each for organising the murder of a Spanish army general.

Henri Parot and Juan Lorenzo Lasa Michelena, known as Tixquierdi, were found guilty of being the leaders of the so-called "French command" of ETA between 1981 and 1985.

Parot met and Txiquierdi in France in 1982 and was given precise details of a plan to attack General Victor Lago in Madrid.

ETA members Jacques Esnal and Jean Vicent Garcia were charged to carry out the killing and began practising shooting at a moving target from a motorbike.

On 4 November, they shot the general in his car at Avenida de los Reyes Catolicos.

Twenty-four shots were fired, killing the general and seriously injuring a soldier who was driving him.

The court ordered Parot and Txiquierdi to pay compensation to the general’s family of EUR 500,000 and EUR 278,000 to the injured driver.

The sentences came just after Francisco Javier Garcia Gaztelu, "Txapote", was sentenced to 18 years’ prison for ordering the bombing of a nightclub in the Basque region.

Asier Arzalluz and Aitor Aguirrebarrena were also sentenced to 31 years each for carrying out the attack, along with Guridi Lasa, in which they kidnapped a male and female employee at the nightclub and drove them to a wood where they tied them to a tree.

Masked throughout, the ETA attackers left a bomb at the nightclub. In his summary, the trial judge said the men were "fully aware of the potential risk to the life of the sons and daughters of the employees taken hostage, who went as normal to help their parents".

The three attackers have been ordered to pay the nightclub owner EUR 961,462 in compensation and EUR 12,000 to each of the two employees kidnapped.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news