The Diplomat
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court has asked Pablo Llarena, the investigating judge in the Procès case, to reactivate the European Arrest Warrant against former President of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and former conseller (regional minister) Toni Comín, currently in Belgium, so that they can be prosecuted in Spain for the illegal independence referendum of October 1, 2017.
The request by the Prosecutor’s Office comes almost three weeks after the General Court of the European Union (GCGEU) withdrew the parliamentary immunity of Carles Puigdemont and the other two JxCAT MEPs, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí. The sentence of the TGUE can be appealed before the Court of Justice of the EU (in fact, the defense has already announced its intention to do so), but prosecutors have warned that the appeal does not have “suspensive effect” and that, “taking into account their personal situation – fleeing from justice and in absentia – it is appropriate to reissue international and European arrest warrants in respect of both defendants.”
Puigdemont and Comín are prosecuted for the crimes of aggravated embezzlement and disobedience, as agreed by Llarena last January following the criminal reform promoted by the Government to eliminate the crime of sedition and reform the crime of embezzlement. In this sense, the Public Prosecutor’s Office also recalls that the crimes of embezzlement carry custodial sentences that, taking into account the high amount of embezzled funds, could be between six and twelve years in prison.
For all these reasons, the Prosecutor’s Office requests “that again the search and arrest and imprisonment” of Puigdemont and Comín be agreed by the instructor and that an international search and arrest warrant be issued “in case it is necessary to process an extradition request, as well as a European arrest warrant and delivery order for both of them”.
“One day you are decisive in forming a Spanish government, the next day Spain orders your arrest,” Puigdemont himself wrote yesterday through his Twitter account in relation to the situation generated by the results of the legislative elections this past Sunday. The leftist formation Sumar has initiated contacts with Junts, the party of the former Catalan president, to get at least his abstention in the vote of investiture to prevent a government between PP and Vox.
On the other hand, the Junts MEP and former consellera (regional minister), Clara Ponsatí, was transferred yesterday to the Ciutat de la Justícia in Barcelona to take her statement after being arrested in the Catalan capital. Sources of the Conselleria de Interior have informed Europa Press that the arrest was carried out by the Mossos d’Esquadra as judicial police on the orders of the judge. Ponsatí herself announced shortly before that she had “been illegally detained again in Barcelona”, in a tweet on Monday at 11.48 am.
