Four former members of the Basque terrorist group Eta have been jailed for almost 75 years each for attempting to murder two journalists and their toddler son by stuffing a plant pot outside the family’s home with explosives and shrapnel.
Aurora Intxausti, a journalist for El País, her husband, Juan Palomo, a reporter for Antena 3 TV, and 18-month-old son, Íñigo, were targeted as part of Eta’s “socialisation of suffering” terror campaign, which sought to inflict the maximum possible pain across Basque society in order to achieve independence from Spain.
As the family was leaving their home in San Sebastián at 8am on 10 November 2000, Palomo heard something that sounded like a firecracker go off by their front door. He then noticed a plant pot on the doormat and immediately told his wife and son to get as far away from the door as possible.
When experts examined the pot, they found it contained 2.5kg of dynamite and a similar weight in nuts and bolts that had been put there to act as shrapnel. The device had failed to explode only because Palomo had opened the door too quickly, causing the connection between the detonator and the explosives to fail.
Last month, almost exactly 24 years on, four Eta members admitted attempted murder during a trial at Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, in Madrid.
On Thursday, judges sentenced the men – Asier García, Patxi Xabier Makazaga, Jon Zubiaurre and Imanol Miner – to almost 75 years each. They were handed a sentence of 19 years and 10 months for each of the three counts of attempted murder, and a further 14 years and 10 months each for terrorist offences.
In their sentencing remarks, the judges noted that the bomb had been planted “with the sole intention of causing the deaths” of the couple and their child, adding: “Fortunately the device did not explode – although this was due to circumstances than ran contrary to the will of the defendants, who had employed the necessary means, resources and knowledge in the hope that the device would activate and achieve their intended result.”
Intxausti said the sentence had brought the family some closure.
“It’s been proven that they intended to kill us and they didn’t care that my son was with us,” she told El País. “It brings an end to a tragic event that took place in 2000.”
Eta, which killed more than 800 people during its four-decade armed campaign, renounced its use of arms in 2011. Seven years later, the group apologised for its actions, accepting that it bore “direct responsibility” for years of bloodshed and misery.
In May 2018, Eta announced its full and formal dissolution.
