Italy to free Catalan leader Spain seeks
LAWYER FOR PUIGDEMONT HINTS AT HIS IMMINENT RELEASE FROM JAIL
Alawyer for jailed Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont said a judge in Sardinia was to order him released from jail yesterday, ahead of a court decision on Spain’s extradition request.
Agostinoangelo Marras told reporters outside the courthouse in Sassari, Sardinia, that when the judge asked Puigdemont if he wanted to be returned to Spain, his client replied “no.”
Marras said a three-judge panel would take up the extradition request and decide “in a very short time.” Meanwhile, according to the judge’s decision, Puigdemont must remain in Sardinia pending outcome of the extradition request.
Demonstrations
Puigdemont was taken into custody Thursday night when he arrived at an airport in Alghero, Sardinia. He had been invited to attend a Catalan cultural event as well as a meeting, a few days later, of Sardinian independence sympathizers on the Mediterranean island.
“Freedom, freedom,” shouted demonstrators outside the courthouse in Sassari. They held signs in a Sardinian dialect proclaiming, “Democracy, the Sardinian nation supports the Catalan nation,” and held the flags of Sardinia and Spain’s Catalonia region. While serving as the region’s president in 2016-2017, Puigdemont pushed for secession from Spain.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said during an official visit to the Canary Islands yesterday that he has “respect for all legal procedures opened in Spain, in Europe and, in this case, in Italy.”
Sanchez, who recently opened direct talks with Catalan regional leaders, said that “dialogue is the only way to bring together Catalans who have distinct opinions and to bring together Catalans with the rest of Spain.”