The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Court lifts Europe arrest warrant for Catalan separatist
Politics: Ponsati fought extradition from Scotland
A former Catalan politician who has been fighting extradition to Spain has had her international arrest warrant formally withdrawn.
Professor Clara Ponsati, a St Andrews University academic, was arrested in March after handing herself in to police in Scotland.
It came after she was made the subject of a European arrest warrant, with authorities in Madrid seeking her on charges of violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds over her role in Catalonia’s controversial independence referendum in 2017.
A full extradition hearing lasting four weeks was scheduled to get under way in Edinburgh at the end of this month.
On Thursday, a Spanish supreme court judge dropped the extradition request for the 61-year-old, a former Catalan education minister.
The warrant was formally discharged during a short hearing yesterday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Nigel Ross told her: “As you know, the arrest warrant from Spain has been withdrawn and therefore it just remains for me formally to discharge you from the European arrest warrant. You are free to go.”
Speaking outside the court, Prof Ponsati said: “I am just determined to keep fighting for the freedom of all political prisoners, for civil rights in Catalonia and Spain and for the republic of Catalonia.”
In a statement, her solicitor Aamer Anwar said: “Today, the arrest warrant for Clara was officially withdrawn.
“This is a humiliating defeat for the Spanish state which, since October 1, has unleashed a wave of repression, attacking the Catalan people, suspending their government, jailing or trying to jail independence leaders.”
“This is a humiliating defeat for the Spanish state”