Spain ? Spanish authorities moved a hunger-striking ETA prisoner from a Madrid hospital to one in the Basque region Thursday as a first step toward allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence at home under custody.

The prisoner, Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, responded to the government gesture by ending his hunger strike, according to Juan Mari Olano, spokesman for Askatasuna, an organization that seeks to help ETA prisoners.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said he made the transfer decision, after consulting with judicial authorities, to avoid the death of the seriously ill de Juana Chaos, one of the Basque separatist group ETA’s most notorious killers.

He had been on hunger strike for 114 days to protest his continuing imprisonment on a new, recent conviction for writing articles deemed as terrorist threats.

The prisoner’s move sparked protests by hundreds of people Thursday night outside the Interior Ministry.

De Juana Chaos, 51, has been forced fed by means of a tube inserted into his nose for several months.