Tearful mother insults ETA suspects during trial

The mother of a six-year-old girl killed by an ETA bomb in 2002 lost her composure while testifying Tuesday at the trial of the two terrorists charged with setting off the device, at one point turning around to call the defendants "sons of bitches."

Toñi Santiago was telling the court that her daughter Silvia was playing in the patio of their home with her cousin on the afternoon of the blast in Santa Pola, Alicante. "Everything went dark and the place started to shake," she said. "When I called for my brother, I noticed how blood was running down from my face." An emotional Santiago said she found her daughter's almost lifeless body lying in a pile of wreckage. "I knew she was dying."

"Sons of bitches," said Santiago as she turned around to face defendants Andoni Otegi Eraso and Óscar Celarain Ortiz, who face up to 1,180 years in prison for placing a car bomb on August 4, 2002 in front of a Civil Guard headquarters. A man waiting at a bus stop was also killed by the blast. "You are nothing but cowardly assassins," she added.