Prisoner threatens to 'skin judge alive'

Madrid: A Basque separatist prisoner on trial for threatening to kill a judge told the presiding judge that he would shoot him and "skin him alive," risking yet another jail sentence.

Ignacio Javier Bilbao Goikoetxea, a convicted murderer and member of armed separatist group ETA, kicked the dock's bullet-proof screen and launched a torrent of abuse at judge Alfonso Guevara and Baltasar Garzon, the judge he had threatened at a previous trial who was appearing as a witness.

"If you're a man, come here ... I'm going to skin you alive. Come here if you've got the courage... I look forward to shooting you seven times when I get my hands on you," the shaven-headed Bilbao Goikoetxea told Guevara in the Madrid courtroom.