MADRID, June 1 (UPI) -- Spain's public prosecutor made a request Wednesday that a Basque leader be charged with belonging to the armed separatist group ETA.
Basque Nationalist Party spokesman Arnaldo Otegi was jailed last week then freed after paying nearly $500,000 in bail.
Otegi's Basque Nationalists, or Batasuna Party, is suspected of acting as the political wing for ETA. The party was banned from participating in government in 2003 for its alleged affiliation with ETA, considered by Spain and the United States to be a terrorist group.
ETA has been has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since beginning its campaign for an independent Basque homeland straddling Spain and France in the 1960s.
This month alone, ETA has been blamed for at least three bombings including a truck bomb that exploded in Madrid on Monday, injuring several people.
Earlier this month, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero offered to open a dialogue with ETA, a move conservative opposition lawmakers rejected. Parliament later agreed with the prime minister and voted to hold the talks.
Ortegi representatives said the move to arrest him would impede government efforts to start peace talks with ETA, El Mundo newspaper reported in it is online edition.
