Catalan leader refuses to return from exile

CARLES PUIGDEMONT, the former Catalan president, will not abandon his self-imposed exile in Belgium despite the Spanish supreme court’s decision to cancel a European Arrest Warrant for him, his lawyer said yesterday.

The separatist leader and four members of his dissolved cabinet had appeared in front of a Belgian judge on Monday to fight extradition to Spain, where they face charges of rebellion and sedition over October’s illegal independence referendum.

The warrants were cancelled yesterday, just as campaigns began for the Dec 21 elections that will determine the course of the independence crisis. The move – described by Raul Romeva, the former Catalan foreign secretary, as “judicial manipulation” – means the five are left with two choices: return and be arrested, or remain at liberty but in self-imposed exile.

“Puigdemont will not leave Belgium after the withdrawal of the European Arrest Warrant,” said Paul Bekaert, his Belgian lawyer, noting the Spanish warrant remained active.

Jaume Alonso-cuevillas, another lawyer for the former president, said the court feared “a slap from Belgian justice”. He said it indicated Monday’s extradition hearing “went much better than we thought”, and led Spain’s judicial authorities to believe they would not obtain the result they sought.

While the supreme court ruling did not specify which of the charges might be struck down, it is widely believed that the most serious offence of rebellion, which carries a jail term of up to 30 years, was considered problematic.

Ten other Catalan politicians and activists face the same charges in Spain, a prosecution that would be endangered if the Belgian judge ruled against them. Six of them were granted bail but four remain in prison. Jordi Nieva-fenoll, professor of procedural law at Barcelona University, said the Belgian criminal code was clear that a rebellion charge required the use of arms.