The Constitutional Court of Spain recognized on Friday the legitimacy of the national arrest warrant issued for former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont last year
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2020) The Constitutional Court of Spain recognized on Friday the legitimacy of the national arrest warrant issued for former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont last year.
Puigdemont self-exiled in Belgium after the Spanish government filed a case on sedition charges against him over his role in organizing the 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia. Many pro-independence Catalan politicians who stayed in Spain were sentenced to lengthy jail sentences and fines.
The Spanish Supreme Court issued national and international arrest warrants for Puigdemont and a former member of his government, Toni Comin, last November. The Catalan politicians appealed the ruling with the Constitutional Court, which now ruled that the national arrest warrant was consistent with the law, according to the court statement.
On October 1, 2017, Catalonia held a referendum to determine its sovereignty status. The voter turnout was 43 percent, of which 90 percent voted for the independence from Spain. Later that month, the Catalan parliament unilaterally proclaimed independence, while Madrid deemed the referendum illegitimate and imposed direct rule in the autonomous region the very next day. The local government was dismissed and subjected to prosecution.
