Spain orders arrest of ETA killer

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court issued an international arrest warrant Tuesday for a notorious former prisoner from the Basque separatist group ETA after he failed to appear before a judge on suspicion of publicly praising terrorism.

Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, 53, left prison last August after serving 21 years for the murders of 25 people in a series of ETA attacks, and also for a separate conviction of making terrorist threats in newspaper articles.

The new charge stems from an August 2 event in the northern Basque city of San Sebastian, when an unidentified woman read -- at a street rally for some 500 people -- a letter from de Juana Chaos that authorities say called for the use of violence in the ongoing armed struggle to achieve Basque independence.

A conviction in Spain for praising terrorism carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

De Juana Chaos failed to appear at the National Court in Madrid on Tuesday morning, despite having been cited, the court said in issuing the arrest warrant. He had earlier failed to appear at a local court in San Sebastian, which was investigating the same charge.

The National Court, which handles cases of terrorism, said De Juana Chaos is thought to be living in Northern Ireland or in Ireland, under a false identity. The court asked Interpol in September to locate him.

While still in prison, but after serving his sentence for the 25 murders, De Juana Chaos went on a hunger strike in 2007 after a court convicted him, in a separate case, of making terrorist threats in newspaper articles.

During the hunger strike, the Socialist government, for a time, sent him to a prison hospital when his health seriously deteriorated, prompting criticism of undue leniency from Spain's conservative opposition Popular Party.

ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence, and is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

Authorities say ETA was responsible for a car bomb that injured 27 people October 30 at the University of Navarra, in Pamplona.

In March 2006, ETA declared a "permanent" unilateral cease-fire, raising hopes for an end to nearly 40 years of ETA violence.

But an ETA bomb at Madrid's airport in December of that year killed two men and caused heavy damage. Although the Socialist government immediately ended the fledgling peace process, ETA did not officially end its cease-fire until June 2007.

There are about 600 ETA convicts or suspects in Spanish jails and 150 others in French jails, authorities in the two countries have told CNN.