Madrid, Sept. 24, (dpa/GNA) – Former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont has been detained on the Italian island of Sardinia.
His lawyer Gonzalo Boye confirmed the arrest on Twitter late Thursday, and his Belgian lawyer also confirmed to dpa in Brussels that Puigdemont had been detained by Italian police in Sardinia.
There was no initial confirmation from the Italian side.
The arrest was under the European warrant issued by Spain’s Supreme Court targeting the Catalan separatist leader, who has been living in Belgium, La Vanguardia newspaper reported, citing judicial sources in Madrid.
Puigdemont is now waiting for a first hearing in a court in the Italian city of Sassari. His lawyer Agostinangelo Marras, said on Friday, according to the ANSA news agency, that a date had not yet been set.
Marras said the Sassari Court of Appeal could still hear his client on Friday or as late as Saturday, and clarify how to proceed. Both sides were still waiting for official documents.
The Spanish government has reacted cautiously to the arrest. Puigdemont must “submit to justice like any other citizen,” the government said on Friday.
Spain accuses Pigdemont of crimes including sedition linked to the October 1, 2017, Catalan referendum and a subsequent decision to separate from Spain.
Afterwards, Catalonia was placed under administration by Spain’s central government. The referendum was ruled illegal and charges were filed against the organizers.
Puigdemont evaded the grasp of the Spanish judiciary by hiding in an SUV and fleeing to France to reach Belgium.
Dialogue between Spain’s central government in Madrid and the separatist regional government in Barcelona on the years-long crisis has only recently resumed. The arrest is likely to make the talks more difficult.
Spain’s conservative opposition welcomed the news of the arrest. “Puigdemont must now face trial in Spain for disrespecting the constitution. And [Prime Minister Pedro] Sanchez must commit not to grant a pardon,” the leader of the Popular Party, Pablo Casado, wrote.
He was referring to the pardon granted in June to Catalan separatists sentenced to long prison terms.
Puigdemont is a dominant force in the separatist camp, which does not see any chance of a negotiated solution and wants to push ahead with regional independence – even if it faces resistance from the rest of Spain.
His JuntsxCat party is the junior partner in the Barcelona coalition headed by the left-wing, more moderate separatist Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party.
The ERC’s Pere Aragones, the current Catalan president, last week resumed talks with Sanchez.
Both sides received criticism for the move: Aragones from the separatists and Sanchez from the national conservative opposition.
Puigdemont had travelled to Sardinia for a meeting with independent local politicians on Friday, according to the La Vanguardia report.
As a Member of the European Parliament, Puigdemont is technically entitled to immunity. However, the European Parliament lifted his immunity and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg rejected a request for interim legal protection. A decision on the case is expected soon.
Puigdemont’s Belgian lawyer Simon Bekaert said the team was preparing an urgent application to the ECJ to restore parliamentary immunity that would be submitted if Italian authorities do not release Puigdemont quickly or initiate an extradition to Spain.
The court had made it clear in its latest decision that Puigdemont should not be detained or extradited until the legal dispute over immunity is finally resolved, Bekaert said.
Spain’s judiciary has been pursuing Puigdemont since he fled after the 2017 referendum. He was arrested in Germany in 2018 but he was not extradited as the Schleswig Higher Regional Court agreed to only extradite him on charges of misappropriating public funds.
Spain would not have been able to charge him with sedition in this case and decided to withdraw its European arrest warrant.
GNA