Status: 09/24/2021 12:59 p.m.
The Spanish government has called for the extradition of the former Catalan regional president Puigdemont. After his arrest in Sardinia, he is waiting for the first court hearing.
After the arrest of the former Catalan Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont in Italy, the government in Madrid demanded his extradition to Spain. Puidgemont must face the courts, said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s office. He had to “submit to justice like every other citizen”.
No appointment yet for a hearing in Sardinia
Puigdemont – who was arrested in Sardinia on the basis of a Spanish arrest warrant – is waiting for a first hearing in a court in Sassari. His lawyer Agostinangelo Marras told the Ansa news agency that an appointment had not yet been set. Both the court and he were still waiting for official documents.
According to another lawyer from Puigdemont, Simon Bekaert, an attempt will first be made in Italy to take legal action against the arrest. At the same time, an urgent application is being prepared to the ECJ in order to restore Puigdemont’s parliamentary immunity as a member of the European Union.
Puigdemont arrested at the airport
Puigdemont was arrested by the Italian police in Sardinia. There he wanted to visit the international exhibition “Adifolk” and meet with the regional president of Sardinia and an ombudsman. When he arrived at Alghero airport, he was stopped by the Italian border police, the lawyers said in a statement.
Catalan ex-Prime Minister Puigdemont released after arrest in Sardinia
Stefan Schaaf, ARD Madrid, daily news 5:00 p.m., 9/24/2021
The basis for the arrest was a European arrest warrant against Puigdemont issued by Spain’s Supreme Court in 2019. Spain accuses him and other separatists of rebellion among other things because of the illegal independence referendum in Catalonia on October 1, 2017 and the attempted secession of the region.
The Spanish government’s arrest is inconvenient
The arrest of Prime Minister 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.
Catalonia’s current head of the regional government, Pere Aragonès, is under pressure because of his talks with the central government in the camp of the particularly unyielding separatists around Puigdemont. In view of the arrest, however, he practiced solidarity with the rival and wrote on Twitter: “By your side, President.”
Conservatives welcome fixing
The Spanish conservative opposition, on the other hand, welcomed the news of the arrest. Puigdemont must be tried in Spain for disregarding the constitution. Sánchez must “undertake not to grant a pardon,” wrote the head of the PP, Pablo Casado. He was referring to the pardon issued in June for the separatists who were sentenced to long prison terms of between nine and 13 years in 2019.