'Txeroki' found not guilty of trying to kill businessman in 2002

A former leader of the armed Basque group ETA was found not guilty of trying to kill a businessman with a parcel bomb in 2002.

Prosecutors were seeking a 15-year term for Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu, aka Txeroki, who was arrested in France in 2008, for the attempted assassination of Enrique Ybarra, vice-president of media group Correo.

According to the ruling, there is not enough evidence to prove ''Txeroki'' was responsible for trying to kill the businessman. Police reports confirm Txeroki was in the same house and at the same time as the person responsible for sending the parcel bomb, but not that he sent it.

This was the first charge on which Txeroki was tried in Spain since his extradition from France. Aspiazu is under investigation in several other ETA-related cases in Spain, including a deadly bombing in 2006 that ended the previous ETA ceasefire.