The leader of banned Basque separatist party Batasuna was jailed for praising terrorism on Friday, just three days after ETA rebels called off a ceasefire with the Spanish government.
Arnaldo Otegi was arrested in the northern city of San Sebastian, where he had been due to give a news conference, after Spain's Supreme Court confirmed a 15-month prison sentence for praising ETA terrorism, Batasuna said.
Three days ago ETA broke off a ceasefire it had declared in March last year, and promised to act "on all fronts" to attack the Spanish government in its fight for independence for the Basque Country.
Otegi, who was taken to a nearby prison, had been sentenced last year for appearing at a demonstration in 2003 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of an ETA rebel. But it had looked likely he would avoid jail as long as ETA continued peace talks the government announced in June. Batasuna is banned because of its links to ETA but had been expected to take part in consultations over the region's future if the peace negotiations had been successful.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called off peace talks when the rebels, impatient at a lack of progress, exploded a bomb at Madrid airport in December, killing two people.
Batasuna said Otegi's arrest signalled "a return to dark days." "How can anyone believe the Spanish government wants to move forward when it orders the arrest of one of the nationalist left's main figures?" said spokesman Pernando Barrena, who substituted his leader in Batasuna's news conference.
HOPES FOR NEW TALKS DASHED: But Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said in Madrid that the decision was made by the courts not the government. She added: "If there was ever a hope of a negotiated, legal solution to the violence, it has been smashed by the terrorists."
Hopes of resurrecting negotiations were finally dashed on Tuesday, when ETA said it was ending what it had called, despite its December attack, a "permanent ceasefire".
The government acted quickly to get tough with the Basque separatists and on Wednesday transferred the best-known ETA prisoner to a jail near Madrid instead of allowing him house arrest as it had previously promised. ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades of an armed struggle which began in the final days of the Franco dictatorship. Surveys show most people in the Basque Country, which already has considerable autonomy, wish to remain part of Spain. In a poll published on Friday, 68 percent of Basques said they thought the government should seek to restart talks with ETA.