MADRID, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Two members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA were each sentenced to 1,042 years in prison by Spain's top criminal court Friday for a bomb attack that wounded 97 people in 2001.

    Ana Belen Egues and Aitor Garcia Aliaga were found guilty of the Madrid car bombing aimed at murdering a state under-secretary of the Interior Ministry, who was wounded with 96 others in the attack.

    Police caught the couple after they were alerted by a passing motorist.

    ETA, or Basque Homeland and Freedom, has been fighting for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern Francesince its founding in 1959.

    It has been listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which accuse it of resorting to assassination, kidnapping and bombing to press for an independent state in the area. Enditem