Court asks that arrest warrant against Puigdemont be kept
The Spanish prosecutor asked the Catalan judge Pablo Llanera to continue with the request for apprehension against the former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont and former counselor Toni Comín
The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court asked the investigating judge of the cause of the independent ‘procés’ in Catalonia, Pablo Llarena, to maintain national and international arrest warrants and the declaration of rebellion of the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and former counselor Toni Comín, both escaped in Belgium, and to go to the European Parliament to request that their immunity be suspended.
Both requests are made, as detailed by the Public Ministry in a 10-page document sent this Monday to the judge, in accordance with the interpretation of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that last week recognized immunity as elected to the Eurochamber of which he was vice president of the Generalitat, Oriol Junqueras. Unlike Puigdemont and Comín, he has been able to be tried and sentenced to 13 years in prison and disqualification for a crime of sedition in competition with embezzlement.
Regarding the arrest warrants, the letter signed by the four prosecutors in the case, Javier Zaragoza, Consuelo Madrigal, Jaime Moreno and Fidel Cadena, points out that both these and the declaration of rebellion that now weigh on the escaped Catalan leaders can only be null and void “when they appear voluntarily or are delivered to respond to the charges attributed to them”.
These precautionary measures imposed on Puigdemont and Comín, the Prosecutor’s Office adds in its letter, must be communicated by Llarena to the European Parliament “as soon as possible” in order to “safeguard the purposes of the criminal process” that is held against both for alleged crimes of sedition and embezzlement.
At the same time, the Public Ministry also calls on Llarena to immediately communicate to the Belgian judicial authorities all this procedure so that the justice of that country suspends the resolution of the delivery to Spain of the two former Catalan leaders while the Eurochamber decides on the immunity of both individuals.
Throughout its brief, the Prosecutor’s Office recalls that both Puigdemont and Comín were prosecuted on March 21, 2018, when they had already fled in Belgium and that after presenting themselves to the last elections to the European Parliament they obtained deputies minutes. The same day that the sentence was handed down, on October 14, Judge Llarena reactivated the European and international arrest.
K. Tovar
Source: La Vanguardia
