Three members of Basque separatist group ETA were convicted May 21 of a 2006 bombing that destroyed a Madrid airport parking garage and killed two people in an attack that shattered a cease-fire.

Mikel Kabikoitz Carrera Sarobe

Mattin Sarasola, Igor Portu and Mikel San Sebastian were each given 1,040-year prison sentences. Spain frequently hands down lengthy sentences in terrorism cases although they are mostly symbolic because the maximum jail sentence a person can serve for a terrorism conviction is 40 years.

The National Court found the three guilty of murder, attempted murder and taking part in a terror attack in connection with the Dec. 30, 2006, explosion at Madrid's Barajas airport.

ETA is seeking an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France. Considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, the group has killed more than 825 people since the late 1960s.

The May 21 verdict came a day after French and Spanish police arrested ETA's suspected leader, Mikel Kabikoitz Carrera Sarobe, and his second in command.

AP