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| - A French appeals court on Wednesday refused to hand over to Spain a former leader of Basque separatist group ETA, saying that a vital confession relating to a 1996 attack may have been obtained under torture. Spain believes that Iratxe Sorzabal Diaz, 49, was one of the main leaders of ETA during a bloody four-decade campaign in the name of Basque independence, in which it is accused of killing at least 853 people. But the presiding judge in Paris said that Spain had "not responded seriously or precisely enough" to Sorzabal Diaz's claims that she had been tortured into confessing to a 1996 bomb attack -- threatening her right to a fair trial under the European Convention on Human Rights. She says she was subjected to "bad treatment" including "suffocation and electric shocks" while in custody in 2001, when she confessed to involvement in several attacks. Although Madrid has contested the claims, medical examinations and reports from international organisations back Sorzabal Diaz's account. The French public prosecutor said the evidence meant her confession can "be considered nullified". Her lawyer Xiantana Cachenaut said that it was "very important to hear these words from judicial authorities" in France, as the defendant herself nodded from the dock. Although Wednesday's decision went her way, Sorzabal Diaz's extradition to Spain has already been approved by the Court of Cassation, France's highest court, over three other cases. Before being handed over, she must finish a French prison sentence that runs until May 2023, after she was convicted alongside another former ETA leader of membership of a terrorist conspiracy. Cachenaut said that information stemming from the same questioning was used in all three cases by Spanish authorities, although prosecutors say there is other evidence. In one case, Sorzabal Diaz has appealed to the UN Committee against Torture. gd/tgb/pvh
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