Spanish court jails 47 for links to armed group ETA

    MADRID, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Spain's high court handed down Wednesday a total of 525 years imprisonment to 47 people convicted of belonging to organizations linked to the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

    The president of the court, Angela Murillo, read her ruling after the trial, saying that the 47 had belonged to the Joxemi Zumalabe Foundation or political groups including the KAS, EKIN and XAKI, all of which support ETA, which stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom.

    Thirty-one were jailed for belonging to a terrorist organization, and 16 were found guilty of collaborating with a terrorist organization.

    A total of 52 people were on trial, but Murillo declared the other five not guilty.

    The trial was the largest ever against organizations linked to ETA, following a long-running investigation process starting in November 2006 and ending in March 2007.

    ETA's latest major attack was on Dec. 30, 2006, during which two people were killed in an explosion at Madrid's Barajas airport. The attack broke a nine-month ceasefire that was announced in March 2006. ETA, which blamed the government for failing to implement peace agreements signed with it, unilaterally called off the truce in June 2007.

    On Dec. 1, 2007, three ETA members killed two Spanish National Guard officers in a gunfight at a parking lot in the French coastal town of Capbreton.

    ETA has killed 850 people using bombs and guns since it began fighting the Spanish government in 1968 for the independence of the Basque country, a region that straddles northeastern Spain and southwestern France.