B7 Spanish court summons axed Catalan leader
BRUSSELS: Spain’s top criminal court summoned Catalonia’s axed separatist leader for questioning, hours after he appeared in Brussels insisting he remained the “legitimate president” of a region now under direct rule from Madrid.
The National Audience in Madrid, and freedom” and to “explain the which deals with major criminal Catalan problem in the institutional cases, summoned Carles Puigdemont and 13 other former members of his He denied that he intended to administration, dismissed by Spain’s claim asylum but said he and several central government last week, to apother former ministers who traveled pear Thursday and Friday. with him would return only if they
They are then set to be placed under have guarantees that legal proceedings formal investigation. would be impartial.
On Monday, Spain’s chief pros ecutor said he was seeking charges Michel said that during Puigdeof rebellion— punishable by up to mont’s time in the country he 30 years behind bars—sedition and would be “treated like any other misuse of public funds.
- rights and responsibilities.” surfaced after reportedly driving to Marseille in France and taking were greeted by a small group of dem
At a packed and chaotic news contheir faces and shouted “traitors!” and ference Tuesday, Puigdemont said he If Puigdemont fails to appear in court as requested, Spanish prosecutors could order his arrest.
His lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas complained in a Tweet that Puigdemont had not been “given time to prepare the defense.”
The National Audience also gave Puigdemont and his former ministers three days to pay a combined deposit against potential penalties of 6.2 million euros ($7.2 million).
Uncharted territory
Puigdemont’s departure and the court’s announcement are the latest twists in the saga over semiautonomous Catalonia’s drive for independence, which has sparked Spain’s biggest crisis in decades.
With its own language and distinct culture, Catalonia, which accounts percent of its population, is deeply divided over independence.
On October 1, the region held an unregulated referendum— marked by a heavy-handed operation by Spanish police—in which a large majority voted in favor of seceding from Spain.
the plebiscite illegal, and turnout was just 43 percent.
Puigdemont insists nonetheless the referendum gave the Catalan parliament a mandate to declare independence on Friday, a decision relayed on large screens to cheering crowds in the
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government was swift and emphatic.
Invoking a never-used article of the constitution, Madrid dismissed Catalonia’s leaders and imposed direct rule.
On Tuesday Spain’s top court ordered the suspension of the Catalan parliament’s independence declaration.
Spain’s Civil Guard police force meanwhile searched the headquarters of Catalonia’s regional police in a probe centered on the independence referendum, a spokesman said.
Spain’s Supreme Court also summoned the former speaker of the Catalan parliament to be put under formal investigation.