Eight Basques jailed for up to 16 years in France
Inaki Lizundia-Alvarez, a former municipal councilor for Batasuna, the political arm of the Basque separatist group ETA, received the heaviest sentence of 16 years' jail for having attacked a Basque police officer.
Juan Carasatorre-Aldaz, suspected of being an ETA leader, and Jose-Ramon Lete-Alberdi, charged with leading ETA's arms dealing and car theft activities in France, both received 13-year prison terms.
Two other French nationals, Gabriel Saez Totoricaguena and Laurenxa Beyrie, were sentenced to 10 years, while Nerea Garaizar-San Martin received a seven-year sentence for participating in several ETA units.
Finally, Miren Orcolaga-Echaniz, a Spanish national, was sentenced to four years, while French national Patxi Etchart-Cacouteguy received a suspended sentence of three years with two years probation.
Also last week Spanish police arrested 18 members of three organization linked to ETA in the northern city of Bilbao in accordance with a court order. --------ETA will never win Basque independence, vows Zapatero
ETA will never achieve its aim of an independent Basque homeland, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday in an interview with Spanish radio.
"Its only destiny is its end," which was a question of time, he told radio Cadena Ser Andalucia.
After ETA's December 30 attack at Madrid airport that killed two people, Zapatero said that efforts to negotiate a settlement to the Basque conflict had come to a "full stop".
ETA, formed in 1959, has called for the establishment of an independent Basque state in the Basque region straddling the Spanish-French border.
Over the past four decades, assassinations, kidnappings and explosions carried out by the group have claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 people. The European Union and the United States have listed ETA as a terrorist organization.