Status: 09/24/2021 5:54 p.m.
After his arrest in Sardinia, the former Catalan regional president Puigdemont is expected to be released. However, he is not allowed to leave the island until a possible extradition to Spain has been decided.
The Catalan ex-regional president Carles Puigdemont, arrested in Italy, is released. He is not allowed to leave Sardinia until the court in Sassari has decided on an extradition request from Spain, as Puigdemont’s lawyer Agostinangelo Marras said.
Lawyer: Decision probably “in a few weeks”
It is unclear when the decision could be made. According to Marras, it will probably “take a few weeks”.
Puigdemont was arrested by Italian police in Sardinia when he arrived at Alghero airport. On the Mediterranean island he wanted to visit the international exhibition “Adifolk” and meet with the regional president of Sardinia and an ombudsman.
Madrid call for Puigdemont’s extradition
The government in Madrid then demanded that Puigdemont be extradited to Spain. The country’s Supreme Court had a European arrest warrant issued against Puigdemont in 2019.
He and other separatists are accused of rebellion, among other things, because of the illegal independence referendum in Catalonia on October 1, 2017 and the attempted secession of the region.
Madrid continue to seek dialogue with Catalonia
The arrest of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish government is inconvenient because it could jeopardize the dialogue that has just begun with the regional government of Catalonia to end the longstanding conflict.
After Puigdemont’s arrest, Sánchez spoke out in favor of continuing the dialogue. “Today it is more important than ever to call for dialogue,” he said. At the same time he emphasized: “What Carles Puigdemont has to do is appear before the judiciary and face it”.
Protests in Barcelona after the arrest of Catalonia’s ex-Prime Minister Puigdemont
Tagesschau 4:00 p.m., 9/24/2021
Catalonia’s head of government wants to travel to Sardinia
Catalonia’s incumbent Prime Minister Pere Aragonès had called for the “immediate release” of Puigdemont. He announced that he would travel to Sardinia to assist him. In Barcelona, hundreds of Catalans protested against the arrest of Puigdemont in front of the Italian consulate.
In Italy, meanwhile, there is speculation whether Puigdemont consciously took the risk of his arrest in order to draw attention to the legal dispute over his immunity as a member of the European Parliament. In March, the European Parliament lifted its MEP immunity by majority vote. Puigdemont defends itself against this with a complaint before the European Court of Justice. However, a request for the provisional restoration of parliamentary immunity pending the final decision of the Court of Justice was denied. The judge in charge pointed out, among other things, that Spain had given assurances that the arrest warrant against Puigdemont would not be carried out pending a final decision by the court on extradition issues.
While Puigdemont’s Belgian lawyer Simon Bekaert was indignant that Puigdemont had even been prosecuted by the police on arrival, the Italian law professor Fulco Lanchester suggested that Puigdemont had deliberately taken the risk of a short-term arrest “in order to draw attention to his case close”. It is “difficult to believe that someone wanted with an international arrest warrant and who does not enjoy immunity has not deliberately made such an arrest,” he told the DPA.