Catalan ex-minister surrenders to police
EDINBURGH: Former Catalan minister Clara Ponsati, who is wanted by Spain for her role in last year’s independence bid, surrendered to Scottish police Wednesday to face arrest under a European warrant.
Ponsati was later released after being granted bail, but was ordered to surrender her passport during a preliminary extradition hearing at a packed Edinburgh Sheriff Court, pending a full hearing.
Lawyers for Ponsati, a professor at the University of St Andrews, said they will “robustly” reject charges of violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds for helping to organise last year’s independence referendum in Catalonia, which the government in Madrid deemed illegal.
Supporters outside the court when she was released waved Catalan separatist flags and help up a banner reading: “We are with you”.
She has received support from members of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which runs the devolved government in Edinburgh, which has condemned arrest warrants issued for the Catalan politicians.
However, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she cannot intervene in an independent legal extradition process.
An online campaign to raise funds for Ponsati’s extradition battle was launched earlier on Wednesday, and within three hours had raised more than £90,000 ($127,000).
“My legal team is instructed to robustly defend Clara as she views these charges as ‘political persecution’ and a systematic attempt to crush the spirit of the Catalan people and their desire for freedom,” her lawyer Aamer Anwar said in a statement.
On her behalf, he thanked the staff at the university, the “many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people” who had backed her, as well as Sturgeon and the Scottish government.