8 in Catalan Cabinet jailed; judge mulls leader’s arrest
Prime minister, in Belgium, did not appear in court.
A Spanish prosecutor asked a judge Thursday to issue an international arrest warrant for the former president of Catalonia and four of his ministers after they failed to appear in a Madrid court for questioning about their efforts to break the region away from Spain.
Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his 13-member Cabinet were among those summoned to Spain’s National Court. Puigdemont surfaced in Belgium on Tuesday with some of his ex-ministers, saying they were seeking “freedom and safety” there. He and four of the officials remained in Brussels on Thursday.
Asked whether Puigdemont would turn himself in if the arrest warrant is granted, his lawyer in Belgium, Paul Bekaert, told The Associated Press: “Certainly. Or the police will come get him.” Bekaert said Puigdemont intends to cooperate with Belgian police.
Meanwhile, the same judge, Investigative Magistrate Carmen Lamela, sent eight former Catalan Cabinet members to jail without bail and ordered another to be held pending a 50,000euro ($58,300) bail payment.
The ruling was made at the request of prosecutors after the nine were questioned at the National Court in Madrid. Under Spain’s legal system, investigating judges can order the detention of suspects while a com- prehensive probe, sometimes taking months, determines if charges should be brought.
Also Thursday, six Catalan lawmakers appeared for a parallel session in the Spanish Supreme Court. They were given a week to prepare their defenses and instructed to return for questioning on Nov. 9.
In all, 20 regional politicians are being investigated on possible charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement for a declaration of secession the Parliament of Catalonia made on Oct. 27. The crimes are punishable by up to 30 years in prison under Spanish law.
Spain took the unprecedented step of triggering constitutional powers allowing it to take over running Catalonia following the region’s declaration of independence. Madrid dismissed the Catalan Cabinet, dissolved the regional parliament and called a new regional election for Dec. 21.
Junqueras, in a tweet sent shortly after the judge’s decision jailing him for pushing Catalonia’s secession, called on Catalans to vote in a regional election on Dec. 21
Javier Melero, a lawyer representing some of the separatist lawmakers investigated in the Supreme Court, criticized Puigdemont and the four ministers who skipped court. He said their actions would be damaging for his clients, three l awmakers who are members of Puigdemont’s PDeCAT party.
“Not being at the service of the judiciary when you are summoned is always damaging for the rest of those being i nvestigated,” Melero said.
About two dozen politicians and elected officials from Catalan separatist par- ties gathered at the gates of the Supreme Court in a show of support for the lawmakers under investigation.
The protracted political crisis over Catalonia could have an impact on the country’s economic growth, Spain’s central bank warned in a report Thursday.
The Bank of Spain had assessed the potential consequences of two possible scenarios: one is a temporary period of uncertainty in the fourth quarter of 2017 which could shave 0.3 percentage points off forecast growth through the end of 2019. The other scenario was a “severe and prolonged” crisis, which would bring an accumulated decrease of 2.5 percentage points in Spain’s gross domestic product between the end of 2017 and 2019.
That, it said, could spell a recession for Catalonia.