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A judge of Spain’s Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted the national arrest warrants against former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont, removing the immediate legal obstacle to his return to Spain after nearly nine years abroad.
Pablo Llarena, the investigating magistrate in the court’s Criminal Chamber, issued the order setting aside the national search, capture and arrest warrants against Puigdemont and former regional ministers Antoni Comín and Lluís Puig. The order takes effect “immediately and until a further express judicial ruling.” It directs the National Police, the Guardia Civil, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and any other authorities holding the warrants not to detain the three on that basis.
Llarena acted after the Constitutional Court announced that it had upheld an amparo appeal filed by former Catalan minister Dolors Bassa. An amparo appeal is a specialized legal remedy used in many Latin American countries to protect individuals from violations of their constitutional rights by courts or public authorities. The court annulled Supreme Court orders of July 1 and September 30, 2024, which had refused to apply Organic Law 1/2024, the Catalan amnesty law, to the embezzlement conviction against Bassa. It ordered the Supreme Court to issue a new ruling declaring that offense amnestied.
The Supreme Court had held that Bassa diverted public funds to pay for the unlawful October 1, 2017 independence referendum. In its view, that brought her within the amnesty law’s exclusion for embezzlement committed to obtain personal financial enrichment.
The Constitutional Court rejected that reading by holding that the exclusion is an autonomous concept meant to screen out private corruption unconnected to financing the secession process. The court also rejected the Supreme Court’s second ground that the independence process endangered the EU’s financial interests. It found that ground inconsistent with the facts of the 2019 procés judgment.
Llarena said that the ruling may undermine the basis of the warrants he had maintained in a July 1, 2024 order. Executing them in the meantime, he reasoned, could cause a deprivation of liberty that might later prove unjustified, contrary to the right to liberty under Article 17 of the Spanish Constitution.
Puigdemont was President of the Generalitat of Catalonia when the region held its referendum on self-determination on October 1, 2017. In 2024, the Spanish Supreme Court summoned him and other fugitives over alleged criminal matters, a move condemned by the European Civic Forum as a violation of the right to freedom of assembly, which is codified under Article 21 of the Spanish Constitution and Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The judge stressed that the measure is provisional. It does not declare the amnesty applicable, extinguish criminal liability or settle other pending questions. Moreover, it also does not execute the Constitutional Court’s judgment early or extend it automatically to parties who did not bring the appeal.
The post Spain Supreme Court judge lifts Puigdemont arrest warrant after Constitutional Court ruling appeared first on JURIST - News.
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Pablo Llarena, the investigating magistrate in the court’s Criminal Chamber, issued the order setting aside the national search, capture and arrest warrants against Puigdemont and former regional ministers Antoni Comín and Lluís Puig. The order takes effect “immediately and until a further express judicial ruling.” It directs the National Police, the Guardia Civil, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and any other authorities holding the warrants not to detain the three on that basis.
Llarena acted after the Constitutional Court announced that it had upheld an amparo appeal filed by former Catalan minister Dolors Bassa. An amparo appeal is a specialized legal remedy used in many Latin American countries to protect individuals from violations of their constitutional rights by courts or public authorities. The court annulled Supreme Court orders of July 1 and September 30, 2024, which had refused to apply Organic Law 1/2024, the Catalan amnesty law, to the embezzlement conviction against Bassa. It ordered the Supreme Court to issue a new ruling declaring that offense amnestied.
The Supreme Court had held that Bassa diverted public funds to pay for the unlawful October 1, 2017 independence referendum. In its view, that brought her within the amnesty law’s exclusion for embezzlement committed to obtain personal financial enrichment.
The Constitutional Court rejected that reading by holding that the exclusion is an autonomous concept meant to screen out private corruption unconnected to financing the secession process. The court also rejected the Supreme Court’s second ground that the independence process endangered the EU’s financial interests. It found that ground inconsistent with the facts of the 2019 procés judgment.
Llarena said that the ruling may undermine the basis of the warrants he had maintained in a July 1, 2024 order. Executing them in the meantime, he reasoned, could cause a deprivation of liberty that might later prove unjustified, contrary to the right to liberty under Article 17 of the Spanish Constitution.
Puigdemont was President of the Generalitat of Catalonia when the region held its referendum on self-determination on October 1, 2017. In 2024, the Spanish Supreme Court summoned him and other fugitives over alleged criminal matters, a move condemned by the European Civic Forum as a violation of the right to freedom of assembly, which is codified under Article 21 of the Spanish Constitution and Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The judge stressed that the measure is provisional. It does not declare the amnesty applicable, extinguish criminal liability or settle other pending questions. Moreover, it also does not execute the Constitutional Court’s judgment early or extend it automatically to parties who did not bring the appeal.
The post Spain Supreme Court judge lifts Puigdemont arrest warrant after Constitutional Court ruling appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.