Jailing 'will not affect peace': Basque party leader

The head of an outlawed pro-independence Basque party who was released yesterday from a Madrid jail on bail has said that his imprisonment would not affect peace efforts in the northern troubled Basque region.

Arnaldo Otegi, the leader of the Batasuna party, which is seen as the political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, was jailed in the early hours of Thursday by a Spanish judge who accused him of being a leader of the armed group.