France authorizes the temporary handover of Txeroki to Spain for an attack in Bilbao in 2002

The ETA Garikoitz Aspiazu, 'Txeroki', in 2019, in the National Court.Zipi (EFE)

The French justice has authorized this Wednesday the temporary delivery to Spain of the former head of ETA Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, alias

, to be tried for a bomb attack perpetrated by the terrorist gang in Bilbao in January 2002 that left material damage.

As decided by the investigation chamber of the Court of Appeal of Paris,

will be handed over before the end of August, and for a maximum of two months, to the Spanish courts. This had requested that the term be six months, while the lawyer of the former ETA leader had asked that it be limited to one. The former head of ETA, who is currently serving 30 years in prison in the south of France, has already been temporarily sent on several occasions since his arrest in this country in 2008 to Spain, to face several of the multiple trials that are pending.

The Parisian Court of Appeal has also given its approval this Wednesday to the deferred delivery of

48, to Spain for another three of the 11 causes for which the Spanish justice continues to demand. These summaries include one for "attempted terrorist assassination" for the sending, in January 2002, of a package bomb to a director in Bizkaia of Radio Nacional by the

command , of which

is accused of being part. Aspiazu Rubina was already sentenced in 2018 to 18 years in prison for sending another package bomb on the same dates against an Antena 3 directive. However, in 2011, when the Spanish justice tried him for the first time for various crimes against him. They were sentenced to 377 years in prison, he was acquitted of the assassination attempt, by means of another package bomb on the same dates, of the then vice president of Grupo Correo, Enrique Ybarra.

In any case, his defense still has time - up to three days once he receives the official notification - to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court, which in any case would not be made until the ETA, arrested on November 17, 2008 in France , serve several of the penalties for terrorism that were imposed in this country. Even if sentence reductions are applied,

will not be released before 2032, according to the agency France Presse.

Meanwhile, the president of the Parisian court has asked Spain for more information on the other eight causes for which his surrender has been requested, among them as the alleged mastermind of the attack on terminal T4 at Madrid's Barajas airport in December 2006, in the one that killed two people and that torpedoed the negotiations between ETA and the Spanish Government. The new hearing to review these files has been set for April 6.

His lawyer, Xantiana Cachenaut, requested in October the rejection of that claim, estimating that the statements of another ETA figure, Martin Sarasola, which incriminate him, were “taken away” during his provisional detention in Spain, Efe recalls.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg condemned Spain in February 2018 for "inhuman and degrading treatment" of Sarasola and another ETA member, Igor Portu, when they were "under the control" of the Civil Guard.

When

was arrested in November 2008 in Cauterets, in southwestern France, he was ETA's most wanted leader.