Spain: Italy suspends extradition procedure against Carles Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont during a press conference in Alghero in Sardinia on October 4, 2021. AP - Gloria Calvi
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The Catalan independentist still managed to benefit from European legal convolutions to delay a possible arrest in Italy, or even a one-way ticket to prison in Spain.
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With note corresponding to Brussels,
Pierre Bénazet
Carles Puigdemont had been arrested in Sardinia in the city of Alghero because of a Spanish arrest warrant. He had been released pending a hearing on Monday in Sassari. During this hearing the judges decided to suspend his case pending a decision from the European justice.
For the Catalan independence leader, the future darkened in March when MEPs lifted his parliamentary immunity. He appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) but it confirmed this lifting on July 30. The way could therefore have seemed clear for the Spanish arrest warrant. But
Carles Puigdemont
has the right to appeal to the European Court again. And the final decision depends above all on another Catalan separatist, Lluís Puig Gordi, whose case the Court is also examining.
But even if the Court of Justice of the EU decided to maintain the lifting of immunity, Carles Puigdemont would not automatically go to prison in Spain for all that.
The European arrest warrant was however planned for that, to abolish extradition procedures between EU countries: it is now only "transfers" which must be effective within ten days but the accused have the right to oppose it for up to sixty days.
Nothing says that the Italian judge accepts to execute the mandate of the Spanish justice.
It has already issued four, including three to Italy and one to Germany, but none has yet worked.
For four years, Carles Puigdemont has managed to slip through the cracks of all the nets deployed by European judicial systems.
►Also read: Spain: Catalan independentist Carles Puigdemont arrested on his arrival in Italy
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