Judge Killed in Spain; Basque Separatist Group Is Blamed
Suspected separatists shot a judge to death Wednesday in Spain’s Basque country, police said, one day after a Madrid car bombing injured nearly 100 people.
The successive attacks, blamed on the Basque group ETA, dashed hopes that the separatists might disarm after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. More than 800 people have been killed during the ETA’s 33-year drive for an independent Basque homeland.
On Wednesday, provincial Judge Jose Maria Lidon Corbi, 50, was shot in the head as he drove out of his garage in Getxo on the outskirts of the Basque port city of Bilbao, police said.
His wife was in the car with him and one of their two sons was in another car nearby when at least two people carried out the attack, police said.
The Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. prompted calls in Spain for a harder line on the ETA, whose name is an acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is hoping worldwide outrage over terrorism will translate into greater support abroad for his campaign to crush the separatist group. Wednesday’s shooting was the fourth attack blamed on the ETA since Sept. 11.
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