OUTSIDE the court scores of protesters waved the Spanish flag and cried: “Murderers.”

Inside, the two suspected Eta terrorists sat in the glass-panelled dock, chatting to each other and refusing to answer questions from the court in central Madrid.

The pair remained impassive even as Consuelo Garrido Blanco, struggling to hold back tears, told how her son was kidnapped, shot and left in a ditch to die from his wounds. “On the day it happened, we kept getting calls which filled me with fear. Finally someone told me he was kidnapped. I was destroyed,” she said.

The opening of the trial of the former Eta leader Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, known as Txapote, and his girlfriend Irantzu Gallastegi, known as Amaia, transfixed Spain yesterday.

The couple, both in their thirties, are accused of abducting Miguel Ángel Blanco, a young town councillor of the conservative People’s Party (PP), in July 1997.

The terrorists gave the PP Government in Madrid 48 hours to move their prisoners closer to the Basque Country or Blanco would die. Spaniards held mass demonstrations appealing for his life but, soon after the deadline expired, Blanco was found in a wood with two bullet wounds to the head after a botched execution-style killing. He died in hospital 12 hours later. It proved to be one murder too many for Eta. Six million took to the streets in spontaneous demonstrations for peace, and the national political parties forged a common front against terrorism.

The leadership of Eta was stunned by the first show of mass public revulsion to their bloody campaign. It was a turning point that led to Eta declaring its first permanent ceasefire in March after a 38-year armed campaign that cost 817 lives.

Señor García and Señora Gallastegi were arrested in 2001 in France, where they had been on the run. After appeals against extradition, they were brought to Spain last year.

They are also accused of the murder of José Luis Caso, another PP councillor, who was murdered in 1997 in the Basque town of Rentaría. Señor García is also accused of the murder of two other councillors and a police chief.

Their trial for the murder of Blanco has opened as the Socialist Government is preparing to start controversial peace talks with Eta — talks that are strongly opposed by the PP, which is in opposition.

If Señor García and Señora Gallastegi are convicted, victims’ groups and the Right will expect heavy sentences with no judicial concessions because of the peace process. The pair would face a maximum penalty of 50 years in jail and have to pay €500,000 (£342,000) in compensation.

Many of the protesters outside the court yesterday were appalled that José Luis Rodrí-guez Zapatero, the Prime Minister, was prepared to talk to Eta.

María del Mar Blanco, the sister of the murdered councillor, said: “I can’t believe in a prime minister who dirties the memory of my brother by dealing with Eta.” She said of the trial: “This will be a difficult moment for all of us, but at last we will see justice done, and this gives us some comfort.”

Heading the protests yesterday, Francisco José Alcaraz, the president of the Association of Terrorism Victims, warned the Government against ceding in the talks to demands that Eta prisoners be transferred to Basque jails. He said: “We will be shooting Miguel Ángel Blanco again, and all those who have been killed for not giving in to (Eta’s) blackmail.”

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