Italy suspends proceedings against Carles Puigdemont pending EU decision

Published on : 10/05/2021 – 05:20

An Italian court suspended, Monday, October 4, the examination of the European arrest warrant and the request for extradition to Spain of the Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, pending a decision of the European justice on his immunity as a MEP .

“The case is not closed but suspended,” said Agostinangelo Marras, the Italian lawyer for the former Catalan president.

Carles Puigdemont appeared on Monday before judges at the Sassari Court of Appeal, in Sardinia, seized of the European arrest warrant issued by Spain for his extradition to answer for the 2017 secession attempt.

“It’s been four years since we arrived in exile” in Belgium, recalled Carles Puigdemont in the evening during a press conference in Alghero, the only Italian city of Catalan culture and language.

“Since then, I have had to face three different jurisdictions, in Belgium, Germany and Italy”, countries in which he was arrested under the European arrest warrant issued by Madrid, then released. Each time, “Spain has failed in its political goals,” he said.

“It is time to say ‘enough’. Stop. Let us find a political solution, and not a judicial one, to this conflict”, concluded Carles Puigdemont in Sardinia.

Three senior Catalan officials present to support him

Carles Puigdemont was arrested on September 23 when he arrived at Alghero airport to participate in a Catalan cultural festival. He was released the next day, pledging to attend Monday’s hearing.

The one accused by Madrid of sedition and embezzlement arrived at the end of the morning, acclaimed by dozens of Catalan, Sardinian and Corsican independence activists who chanted “Liberty! Liberty!”.

Three other senior Catalan officials were present to support him: MEPs Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin, also claimed by Madrid, as well as Jordi Sanchez, the leader of an independentist association at the time of the 2017 secession attempt, released in June after nearly four years in prison.

Appeal after lifting of immunity

MEP since 2019, Carles Puigdemont, 58, demands to regain his immunity as a MEP to oppose Spain’s extradition request. A request to this effect was recently submitted for interim relief to the General Court of the European Union (EU), which had rejected a previous request in July.

The European Parliament deprived him of his immunity on March 9 by a vote with a large majority. This measure was confirmed on July 30 by the General Court of the European Union. But the decision of the European Parliament is being appealed and the final judgment on the merits has not yet been delivered.

The crime of sedition does not appear in the Italian penal code, which would make a possible extradition procedure very complex.

An arrest that rekindled tensions

The arrest in Italy of Carles Puigdemont caused a stir, as a period of detente had opened between Madrid and Barcelona, ​​the capital of Catalonia, since the election in May to the presidency of the Spanish region of Pere Aragonès, of the moderate separatist Left Republican Party of Catalonia (ERC).

The pardon granted in June to the nine separatist leaders sentenced to prison for their role in the 2017 secession attempt had resulted in September in the resumption of dialogue with Madrid.

One of the most fervent opponents of this dialogue is precisely Carles Puigdemont, who was at the head of Catalonia at the time of the 2017 secession attempt and had fled to Belgium to escape prosecution.

Despite the ban on justice, his government organized a self-determination referendum on October 1, 2017, causing one of the worst crises experienced by Spain since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975.

With AFP