Spanish justice withdraws arrest warrants for Puigdemont and five Catalan leaders

The Spanish judge in charge of the investigation into the attempted secession of Catalonia in October 2017 announced, Thursday, July 19, that he was withdrawing international arrest warrants for the deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, and five other independentist leaders who fled abroad.

The former Catalan president immediately felt that this decision made "a demonstration of the 'immense weakness' of the file. In a tweet, Puigdemont also called on the Spanish judiciary to "suspend the pre-trial detention" of the nine other separatist leaders imprisoned in Spain for their role in Catalonia's attempt to secede in October, so to show that it "begins to act as the European justice" .

Following the German decision

This withdrawal comes after the decision a week ago, the German justice of authorize the extradition of Mr. Puigdemont to Spain only for the charge of embezzlement and not for rebellion, an offense punishable by twenty-five years' imprisonment.

"Extradition for the prosecution misappropriation of public funds is admissible, extradition for the charge of rebellion is not admissible " declared the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig-Holstein.

In his judgment rendered game di, Judge Pablo Llarena writes also refuse the extradition of the former Catalan president for this single head of embezzlement. The Spanish government wants the former president of the Generalitat to be judged in Spain for his role in the attempt to secede.

M. Puigdemont, after proclaiming the independence of Catalonia, had fled to Brussels. He was arrested in March in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, on his way home from a meeting in Denmark, then released on bail of 75,000 euros.

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