SPAIN’s long battle with various legal jurisdictions arising from allegations surrounding the Catalan push for independence resurfaced yesterday when a Belgian court delayed until early next month a decision on the extradition of exiled former Catalan culture minister Lluis Puig.
Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena reactivated a European arrest warrant for Puig, along with others for former president Carles Puigdemont and one of his former ministers Toni Comin, after Catalan pro-independence leaders were jailed for their part in the 2017 referendum.
The warrants had been dismissed by Belgium, but the country’s prosecutors – acting on behalf of Spain – took the case to an appeal court hearing yesterday.
When the extradition was initially denied, Javier Zaragoza, one of the prosecutors, said the ruling was completely “arbitrary and unfounded”, and that Puig should have been extradited.
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He said the court’s rejection was “legally unsustainable” because its reasoning was “unusual and unacceptable”, and showed that European judicial co-operation had failed.
Puig is wanted in Spain on charges alleging the embezzlement of public funds for use in what is known as the independence process.
The Brussels court will decide his fate on January 7.
Puigdemont, Comin and former minister Clara Ponsati, all of whom are now MEPs, accompanied Puig to the court.
Regardless of what the appeal judges decide, there is a possible final route to overturn the warrant – the court of cassation, which focuses on possible procedural errors.
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