The Diplomat
The arrest of Carles Puigdemont on the island of Sardinia has put the Italian justice system in a quandary, which must decide whether the decision of the European justice system to withdraw the European parliamentary immunity of the former Catalan president justifies his extradition to Spain.
Carles Puigdemont was arrested this past Thursday by the Italian police upon his arrival at Alghero airport. After the arrest, the judge investigating the case of the procès, Pablo Llarena, sent an official letter to the Spanish representative at Eurojust, Judge José de la Mata, to inform the Italian judicial authorities that the process against the former president “is still pending” and, therefore, the European Arrest Warrant issued on October 14, 2019 against Puigdemont for sedition and embezzlement remains in force, thereby implying that he has no intention of waiving the extradition. In contrast, Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, has assured that the Euro warrant is suspended.
Hours after the arrest, the Court of Appeal of Sassari (Sardinia) ruled the release of Carles Puigdemont after taking his statement. The judge did not issue precautionary measures, but did require him to remain in Sardinia for a few days, until the justice system decides on the validity of the Euro warrant.
The Italian government has not reacted officially for the moment. The Secretary of State responsible for European Affairs, Vincenzo Amendola, quoted by the newspaper El Pais, assured that Mario Draghi’s Executive awaits “respectfully” the decisions of the judges. For its part, the Ministry of Justice explained that Italy is trying to clarify whether or not Puigdemont had immunity at the time of his arrest. “One of the points to be resolved is the content of the order through which on July 30, 2021 the vice president of the General Court of Justice of the European Union has rejected the request for the suspension of the withdrawal of the parliamentary immunity of the independence leader,” ministerial sources said. “Said court ruled that there was no reason of retention that could be wielded by the Belgian authorities or another Member State to request the European arrest warrant against the deputies in order to hand them over to the Spanish authority.”
The basis of this problem, which may turn into a long legal battle, is the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (TEU) last July 30 in which it lifted the provisional measures suspending the MEP immunity of Puigdemont, MEP for JxCAT. On that occasion, the Luxembourg Court considered that it was not necessary to maintain the precautionary measures accepted in June – and that temporarily paralyzed the suspension of immunity adopted by the European Parliament – considering that the withdrawal of immunity did not affect their movements as parliamentarians and neither was it accredited that they could be subject to an “imminent arrest” for their delivery “to the Spanish authorities”.
This detail of the order is precisely what Puigdemont’s defense appealed yesterday to ask the General Court of the EU to return to the former president the provisional immunity that this same body had withdrawn, since that decision, according to his lawyers, was taken after confirming that the arrest warrants were suspended and that, therefore, there was no risk that Puigdemont would be arrested.
Pending what may happen, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday called on Carles Puigdemont to “submit” to the action of Justice and assured his “respect and compliance with the judicial decisions that may be adopted by the Italian Justice”. The president of the PP, Pablo Casado, asked Sanchez to do everything possible so that Puigdemont is extradited from Italy and was convinced that “the Government of Spain will mobilize diplomatically, politically” with that objective.
