THE Puigdemont case in Germany raises a disturbing question. The Superior Court of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to extradite him for misappropriation of funds, and not for rebellion (there being no equivalent German law). So Spain will be able to try him only on the funds (up to eight years in jail), and not for rebellion (up to 30 years).
The judges of Schleswig-Holstein voiced their “complete confidence” in the Spanish judiciary and touchingly assumed “that the Spanish courts willobserve this principle [prosecution only for the extradited charge] and will ... not prosecute the accused Puigdemont after the extradition on the charge of rebellion.” But to prove misappropriation, the Spanish prosecutor will have to prove the rebellion, a matter on which the German decision is meant to protect Puigdemont from indictment. The formal charge would be misappropriation, but the meat of it, and the main thrust of any sentence, would be rebellion.
I sincerely hope that Carla Ponsati’s legal team are alive to this issue and that the Scottish sheriff is less nonchalant than his hispanophile brethren on the German bench.
Alan Crocket
Motherwell
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