MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- A judge has sentenced two members of a
                  small leftist rebel group to 26 and 25 years in prison for their roles in a 1996
                  armed attack on police in central Mexico, a court official said on Thursday.

                  Judge Isidro Avelar of the Toluca criminal court 70 miles (110 km) west of
                  Mexico's capital on Wednesday found Sergio Bautista Martinez and Jose
                  Lopez Garcia guilty of attempted homicide, criminal association and illegal
                  possession of weapons, a court clerk said.

                  The judge then sentenced Bautista to 25 years behind bars and Lopez to 26
                  years, adding an extra year for property damage. The men are members of
                  the Marxist-inspired People's Revolutionary Army (EPR).

                  The charges stemmed from an armed attack by the EPR on a police patrol in
                  August 1996 in Huixquilucan County in Mexico state, outside Mexico City.

                  The EPR first appeared in 1996 in the mountains of southwestern Guerrero
                  state, a poor and violence-plagued state that also is home to the famed
                  beaches of Acapulco.

                  After forming in reaction to a 1995 massacre of 17 leftist peasants in
                  Guerrero, the rebel group attacked police and military targets mostly in
                  Guerrero and neighbouring states.

                  At the end of 1997, the EPR announced it was giving up armed attacks but
                  would continue to carry weapons as it carried out propaganda operations.