A Paris court charged and detained the suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA, Ignacio Gracia Arregui, on terrorism charges today. Sixteen other alleged Basque separatists arrested in a sweep by French police over the weekend are expected to appear before an anti-terrorism examining magistrate on Thursday.
Spain has four international arrest warrants out on Arregui, who is suspected of leading ETA since 1992, and of masterminding a 1995 assassination attempt on Spain's King Juan Carlos. He also has an outstanding five-year prison sentence hanging over him, passed in absentia by a Paris court in 1997 on conspiracy charges.
