Dermot McArdle, who killed his wife on a family holiday in Marbella in 2001, will be arrested this week in advance of his return to Spain to serve a jail sentence.

It is understood that, following the issuing of an arrest warrant through Europol, the Dundalk man's address has been circulated to all Irish and European airports and ports, meaning he would be unable to flee the country if he tried. However, it is considered unlikely that McArdle would attempt to flee, given that his sentence is relatively short and he owns property in Louth.

Judge Fernando Gonzalez, who sentenced Dermot McArdle to jail in Malaga two years ago for the manslaughter of his wife Kelly-Ann Corcoran, signed his arrest warrant on Tuesday after getting the green light from Spain's state prosecution service.

The arrest warrant could not be executed immediately through Europol as it needed to be translated from Spanish to English.

It is understood that all of McArdle's legal avenues to appeal his conviction and return to Spain have been exhausted.

McArdle, from Haggardstown, Dundalk, Co Louth, had been asked to turn himself in by 15 September to start his jail sentence. The court order followed a series of failed appeals against his October 2008 conviction for the manslaughter of his wife.

Kelly-Ann Corcoran, 29, died in February 2000, two days after falling from room 421 of Marbella's Melia Don Pepe Hotel.

Judge Gonzalez also ordered him to pay his two sons by his wife €60,000 each for the loss of their mother, and to pay her parents Ted and Bridie €100,000. He has yet to pay the compensation, prompting the judge to order that he serve his two-year prison sentence.