Spain's high court sentenced three Basque separatist guerrillas to a total of 109 years in prison for plotting to kill King Juan Carlos in
1995. Juan Jose Rego, Jorge Garcia and Ignacio Rego were convicted of crimes against the crown and belonging to an armed band. The trial had started last January.
Juan Jose Rego and Garcia gave evidence that they rented a flat on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca with a direct line of vision to the king's yacht, and had had him in their rifle sights three times.
Garcia told the court he had not shot the king because escape plans had not been finalised.
He and Juan Jose Rego described King Juan Carlos, Crown Prince
Felipe and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as "prime targets" for ETA
(Basque Homeland and Freedom), which has killed 800 people in nearly
30 years in its struggle for Basque independence.
The conviction came a week after ETA kidnapped and killed a young politician, sparking national outrage. Following massive street protests, the government promised to speed up trials of ETA suspects and reform the law to close loopholes exploited by the guerrillas.
But the Interior Minister, Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, said the timing of the court's announcement yesterday was coincidental.
"It's wrong to think that this is a strategy by the separate state powers, because they maintain their independence," he told reporters.
The three men were each sentenced to 10 years in prison for crimes against the crown, eight for belonging to an armed band, eight for terrorism with arms of war, and eight for terrorism with explosives.
They also received one and three-year sentences for forging official documents.
An ETA prisoner was found hanged in his cell yesterday in what
Spanish officials said was almost certainly a case of suicide. Juan
Carlos Hernando (35) was serving a six-year sentence in Albacete jail, 250km from Madrid, after being convicted of belonging to an ETA
information unit in 1994. He was discovered hanging from a water pipe in his cell in the early hours of yesterday morning, his hands loosely bound by a shoelace.
Later yesterday, dozens of anti-ETA demonstrators shouting
"Assassins" punched and threw rocks at approximately 200 participants in a pro-ETA march in San Sebastian, called to protest against the circumstances of Hernando's death. Police forcibly broke up the clashes. - (Reuter, Guardian Service)