Catalan leader in Belgium, lawyer vows to fight ‘Spanish mentality’

TIELT: Sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont’s Belgian lawyer pledged on Tuesday to fight a Spanish state which he said had abused courts for political ends but which he had defeated in previous extradition cases involving Basques.

“I know the Spanish reaction very well. I know their psychology and their mentality,” Paul Bekaert, a veteran human rights advocate who has represented Basques, Kurds and others in the past, told Reuters at the law office where he met Puigdemont on Monday after the ousted Catalan leader travelled to Belgium.

“Spain is using the courts in Spain and in Belgium to make political statements,” he said.

“You cannot use courts in Belgium or in Spain for politics. And that’s the case in Spain.”

Spain’s constitutional court ruled that an independence referendum which Puigdemont’s regional government organised on October 1 was illegal

Puigdemont was considering seeking asylum but it was not certain, Bekaert said.

“We have not yet decided yet. We have a lot of time to decide,” Bekaert said, adding that he could also take on as clients other Catalan leaders, five of whom were reported in Spain to have accompanied Puigdemont.

While Belgium has an unusual track record in refusing to extradite Europeans wanted by other European countries or the United States, the main reason Puigdemont had come was to address a wider audience for Catalonia’s grievances against Madrid, the lawyer said.