By IANS,
Madrid : The Spanish National Court has sentenced four members of a separatist group ETA to jail for over 50 years, Xinhua reported.
The Euskadi Ta Azkatasuna, or ETA is listed as a terrorist organisation by Spain, the US and the European Union (EU). Its 45-year campaign of violence has left over 800 people as dead.
On Wednesday, Francisco Garcia Gaztelu, a former leader of the separatist group ETA, was sentenced to 60 years in jail by the court. He was found guilty of ordering the killing of Jose Javier Mugica, a member of the political party Union del Pueblo Navarra (UPN) in Letiza town during 2001.
Juan Carlos Besance, an ETA member, was condemned to 58 years for his role in the same crime, while Andoni Otegi and Oscar Celarain were sentenced to 50 years each as well and ordered to pay 500,000 euros (over $670,000) in compensation to Mugica’s widow.
Eta first emerged in the 1960s as a student resistance movement and waged a bloody campaign for independence for the seven regions in northern Spain and south-west France that this separatist group claims as their own.
On Sep 5, 2010, the separatist group announced a decision not to carry out further attacks. In January 2011, it declared a permanent and “internationally verifiable” ceasefire, according to BBC.