French Basque militant handed 50-year term 01/08/2006 00:00

MADRID, Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) - A French former leader of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, Henri Parot, received a 50-year jail term on Tuesday for co-organising the murder of army general Victor Lago in Madrid in 1982, legal sources said.

Co-defendant Juan Lorenzo Lasa Michelena, alias 'Txiquierdi', also received 50 years from the high court for the killing of Lago and the attempted murder of his driver Juan Carlos Villalba Gonzalez, who was injured in the attack.

Two ETA commandos who carried out the shooting have already been tried and sentenced separately.

Parot and Michelena were ordered to pay EUR 500,000 to the general's family in compensation and a further EUR 278,800 to the family of Gonzalez.

Parot had already been convicted in Spain on 26 other accounts, bringing sentences totalling 5,145 years for a string of attacks between 1978 and 1990.

Under Spanish law he can serve a maximum 40 years.

ETA is blamed for some 850 killings over a 38-year violent campaign to win an independent state in the northern Basque region of Spain and parts of southwestern France.

On March 22 the group declared a permanent ceasefire, paving the way for peace talks with the government.

Copyright AFP

Subject: French news