ETA airport bombers 'treated inhumanely' in custody, says ECHR

Members of the now-defunct Basque separatist terror cell ETA, Igor Portu and Martín Sarasola, are entitled to €30,000 and €20,000 respectively in compensation for their treatment following their arrest after four ECHR judges voted in their favour.

Portu and Sarasola had appealed to the highest contentious court in Spain, the Supreme, after the case they brought against the two Guardia Civil officers who took them into custody failed.

The Supreme Court upheld the verdict issued by the provincial court of Guipúzcoa, acquitting the police officers and finding no evidence of ill-treatment of suspects.

But the ECHR has overturned Spain's final answer and, although four judges in Strasbourg voted in favour of the compensation payments, another three said the amounts involved were 'not enough'.

After ETA famously broke its truce – announced in March 2006 – with an unannounced attack on December 30 that year at Barajas T-4 in the car park, killing two Ecuadorian men waiting to pick up their relatives from Arrivals, it would be another 13 months before Portu and Sarasola were arrested.

They were finally sentenced, in 2010, to a total of 1,040 years in jail – although they will each only serve 30 – for the deaths of Diego Armando Estacio and Carlos Alonso Palate and for the injuries inflicted on another 50 or so members of the public.

Portu and Sarasola denied being behind the attack and claimed they were 'punched and kicked' on the journey to the Guardia Civil station in Intxaurrondo (Guipúzcoa province) and then 'beaten repeatedly' by Intelligence service agents.

The men claimed officers put guns to their heads and threatened to kill them.

Their injuries were consistent with their story, the ECHR says.

Although four of 15 police officers were sentenced in San Sebastián court, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict and acquitted them on the grounds of 'inaccurate and conflicting descriptions' by the terrorists relating to 'significant areas', and also because filing complaints for torture by police whilst in custody is part of ETA's 'standard procedure' for whenever their members are arrested.

The ECHR considers the Spain has breached Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in two areas – that of failing to comply with the prohibition of 'inhumane and degrading treatment' of suspects in custody, and that of failing to investigate the complaints in full.

Spain has been sentenced 11 times for Article 3 breaches since 2004, but in 10 of these, purely for failing to investigate.

This is the first time the ECHR has found Spain guilty of 'inhumane and degrading treatment', although four out of the seven judges did not consider the alleged assaults amounted to 'torture'.

Whilst the thought of two terrorists found guilty of murder being compensated with a five-figure sum each would normally cause public outrage, in practice neither Portu nor Sarasola will receive any money.

They were ordered to pay €46 million between them in compensation and fines following the attack, which they do not have the means to settle, so the total of €50,000 awarded to them will simply be offset against the larger figure.