Basque Sentenced in ’95 Plot to Kill King
A Basque separatist was sentenced to 13 years in jail for conspiring to assassinate Spanish King Juan Carlos I in a 1995 plot.
Prosecutors say Jose Javier Arizkuren Ruiz, who was sentenced Monday, helped organize a plot to shoot the king with a high-powered rifle from an apartment as Juan Carlos vacationed aboard a royal yacht.
Authorities say the designated shooter, another Basque, had the king in the rifle’s cross hairs three times over the course of a few days in July and August of 1995 but did not pull the trigger because his escape was not assured.
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