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33 year sentence for Basque murder
From Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Basque man has been sentenced to 33 years in jail in the murder of a town councilman whose kidnapping and death prompted a national outcry against the separatist group ETA. The National Court in Madrid sentenced Ibon Munoa on Friday for being an accessory to the 1997 kidnapping and murder of Miguel Angel Blanco, according to CNN partner station CNN+, which has access to the 16-page decision. The three-judge panel also sentenced Munoa to pay Blanco's parents 500,000 euros ($545,000). Blanco -- a conservative councilman in the Basque village of Ermua -- was kidnapped July 10, 1997, and ETA demanded the Spanish government transfer hundreds of ETA prisoners to just a few jails in the northern Basque region. The government refused, and two days later Blanco was found with two gunshot wounds to the head. He died soon after. His kidnapping and murder sparked huge protests in Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish cities. The demonstrations -- which drew an estimated 6 million people over just a few days that July -- are regarded as a turning point in Spain's fight against ETA, which is blamed for more than 800 killings in its long fight for Basque independence. Munoa was arrested in October 2000, and his trial began September 25 in a courtroom with bullet-proof glass. He was not in court Friday when the sentence was delivered. He is in jail in the Madrid area. The court ruled that evidence presented during the trial proved Munoa participated in the crime. The judges said he allowed three ETA members suspected of carrying out the crime to use his car and home and that he provided them with food and discussed with them the political consequences of the kidnapping. Munoa was a former town councilman from the nearby town of Eibar. He belonged to the radical Herri Batasuna party, which has recently been outlawed for its links to ETA. Blanco was a member of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservative Popular Party. Munoa was among four people police believe were involved in the crime. One of the other suspects, Jose Luis Geresta, is now dead. The other two -- Irantxu Gallestegui Sodupe and Francisco Javier Garcia Gaztelu, known as Txapote -- are in French custody. Spain is seeking their extradition.
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