Deposed Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont is now under a European arrest warrant following a ruling in the Spanish courts. Acting on a request from the state prosecutor, the country’s high court also ordered that nine secessionist leaders be jailed.
The prosecutor’s office asked Judge Carmen Lamela to jail Catalonian Vice-President Oriol Junqueras and eight other officials charged with rebellion, sedition and embezzlement of public funds, while the probe is ongoing.
One of the nine, counselor Santi Vila, who resigned from government before Catalonia declared independence, can be released if he posts bail of €50,000, as per the prosecutor’s request.
According to La Vanguardia, Puigdemont, who didn’t appear in court on Thursday, has been issued with an arrest warrant, which had also been requested by the Spanish prosecutor.
Puigdemont’s Belgian lawyer Paul Bekaert previously said that Puigdemont would “cooperate with Spanish and Belgian justice.”
On Friday, October 27 the prosecutor filed a complaint against the Catalonian government for crimes it considers “very serious.” The alleged crimes relate to Catalonia’s independence referendum in which the majority of voters opted to secede from Spain.
The Spanish government declared the referendum illegal and launched a crackdown in the region on polling day. Catalonia declared independence from Spain at the end of October but this was overruled by Spain’s Constitutional Court. Minutes later the supreme court called on Catalonian officials to testify at Thursday’s court hearings.
Catalonia’s October 1 referendum saw over 90 percent of voters opting to leave Spain. However, fewer than 50 percent of those eligible to vote took part. Pro-independence supporters blamed Madrid – who had declared the poll illegal in advance – for the low turnout. The government’s crackdown included preventing people from entering polling stations, their forcible removal when they did enter, and the confiscation of ballot boxes.
Thousands of extra officers from Spain’s national police and civil guard were deployed ahead of referendum day. More than 900 people were reportedly injured in the ensuing clashes.
“The alleged crimes relate to Catalonia’s independence referendum in which the majority of voters opted to secede from Spain.”
The ‘crime’ of freedom from tyranny will not be tolerated any longer.
“Catalonia’s October 1 referendum saw over 90 percent of voters opting to leave Spain.”
Communism trumps majority vote.