ETA Member Jailed Over Plot To Kill King

A member of Basque separatist group ETA has been sentenced to 92 years in prison over a plot to kill the former Spanish king after being arrested in the UK.

Eneko Gogeaskoetxea Arronategui had planned to assassinate then King Juan Carlos during the opening of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, on 18 October, 1997

The attack was foiled five days earlier when police approached him and another ETA member as they tried to hide grenades in flower pots outside the building.

Spain's National Court heard how Gogeaskoetxea managed to escape when he shot dead a police officer at close range during a firefight.

The 49-year-old was eventually caught in Cambridge in the UK in 2011, after a fellow Spaniard recognised him at a squash club.

He had been living there for several years under a false identity.

Gogeaskoetxea's lawyers had fought his extradition to Spain, arguing he faced a real risk of "a flagrant denial of justice" in the country.

They said this was because the accusations against him were based on the confessions of a co-defendant who was allegedly denied proper access to a lawyer.

In 2012, Britain's High Court rejected the appeal and he was extradited.

Gogeaskoetxea was sentenced to 30 years for murdering a police officer and another 15 years for conspiring against the monarchy.

He was also given 47 years behind bars for several other crimes related to the plot including forgery of public documents and possessing weapons.

Under Spanish law, a convicted criminal can serve a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, unless he is convicted of carrying out deadly terrorist attacks.

ETA's last deadly attack in Spain was seven years ago.

In October 2011, it declared a "definitive end to armed activity" but it has yet to formally disband or disarm.

It is blamed for more than 800 killings in its campaign to create an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France.

ETA has been linked to several other assassination plots on Juan Carlos, who abdicated the throne to his son Felipe in 2014.