The Diplomat in Spain

Josep Borrell./ Photo: Foreign Ministry

The Diplomat. 12/07/2018

The Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell, has asked the Government of Belgium to appear in favor of the judge Pablo Llarena in the civil lawsuit brought against him by the former president of the Catalan Government, Carles Puigdemont, and another four former counselors fugitive from Justice.

Borrell, who has given instructions about it to the Spanish Ambassador to Belgium, Cecilia Yuste, responds this way to the letter of the president of the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, in which he has asked the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Justice to guarantee “the integrity of the action of the State” regarding this matter.

In his letter, Lesmes has asked the Government that, “according to the Belgian procedural practice”, requests the Executive of Charles Michel to appear before the courts of the country to defend “the immunity of jurisdiction of Spain and of the judge of the Supreme Court sued”. The lawsuit of Puigdemont and the counselors has been admitted by the Belgian justice.

Josep Borrell has transmitted his request both to Cecilia Yuste and to the Belgian Embassy in Spain. According to different sources, the Spanish Foreign Minister does not plan to directly address this matter with the head of the Belgian diplomacy, Didier Reynders, with whom he is coinciding from yesterday to tomorrow in Brussels on the occasion of the NATO Summit.