MOSCOW, July 11 (RAPSI) – A court in Spain has dismissed the request for unemployment benefits filed by two former ETA terrorists, Europa Press agency announced on Friday.

The court of Eibar, a city in the Basque Country of Spain, has dismissed a request for unemployment benefits filed by former ETA terrorists Jeses Maria Zabarte and Inigo Acaiturri. The State Public Employment Service (SEPE) refused to pay the benefits arguing that the plaintiffs had not stopped their terrorist activity and had not asked forgiveness from their victims.

Zabarte and Acaiturri filed the request with SEPE on May 20.

Zabarte, known as the butcher of Mondragon, was sentenced to 28 years for his crimes, including the death of a child in a 1980 terrorist attack.

Acaiturri was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the murder of a waiter in Zumaya (in the Basque Country). They were released in October 2013 after the European Court of Human Rights condemned Spain for using a legal practice known as the Parot Doctrine, which did not allow limiting or reducing the maximum term of imprisonment for people convicted of terrorist offences. Following that decision, dozens of terrorists were released in Spain.

ETA (Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna or Basque Homeland and Freedom) is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization that was established on July 31, 1959. According to El Mundo, its members have killed 864 people.