Italian justice ordered the release of Puigdemont | Yesterday he was arrested on the island of Sardinia

Italian justice ordered the release of the former President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont, who was arrested yesterday on the island of Sardinia after an international arrest warrant filed by a judge of the Supreme Court of Spain. It remains to be determined whether or not he will be extradited.

The arrest of the Catalan separatists was requested as part of the cause of sedition which was opened to him after a secessionist attempt in 2017. However, For the judge of the Italian Court of Appeal of Sassari, Plinia Azzena, the arrest of the Catalan leader “is not illegal”.

The member of the tribunal based in Sardinia admitted a request made by Attorney General Gabriella Pintus and responded positively. He ruled that there is no reason to apply precautionary measures the former president of Catalonia or to keep him behind bars.

Extradition remains to be settled

However, it remains to be seen whether Puigdemont should be extradited or not. So, must remain on the island of Sardinia until this point is resolved.

The former president was arrested yesterday as he got off a plane at Algue airport, and from there he was taken to Sassari high security prison. Your defense “He did not ask for any precautionary measures of any kind”, said his lawyer in Italy, Agostinangelo Marras.

“It was the first phase, the hearing for the validation of the detention and the application or not of precautionary measures. the court will have to decide if there are reasons for President Puigdemont to be handed over or not, ”he added.

He does not intend to return to Spain

The lawyer assured that the Italian judge asked Puigdemont if he intended to go to Spain or not and “he said no”. Now, The Court will have to rule on Puigdemont’s situation, either to release him completely and with the possibility of leaving Italy, or to proceed to his surrender to Spain.: “The times are going to be tight, we can talk about a few weeks”, anticipated Marras.

The former Catalan president had traveled from Brussels to Sardinia to participate this Friday in an international meeting organized by the Adifolk association, in the company of other personalities such as the Minister of Foreign Action of the Generalitat, Victoria Alsina.

Alsina asked the media in the Sassari court that the European Union “does not look the other way” and help mediate the current situation. Likewise, he confided that “Italian justice will be alongside European justice, just as Germany and Belgium were at the time”. “What we want is for this misunderstanding to be resolved as soon as possible”, he pointed out.