Exiled former Catalan leader arrested in Sardinia
The exiled former head of the Catalan government has been arrested in Italy.
According to his office Carles Puigdemont was being held by police in Sardinia four years after Spanish authorities sought his arrest for organising an independence referendum in Catalonia.
He’d travelled to Alghero yesterday from Brussels to meet the regional governor of Sardinia and to attend the folklore festival.
The office of the former President said: “When he arrived at Alghero airport he was stopped by the Italian border police.”
“He’ll appear before the judges of the court of appeal of Sassari, who will decide whether to let him go or extradite him,” his chief of staff, Josep Lluís Alay, wrote on Twitter.
According to his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, the arrest was made on the basis of a Spanish warrant issued in October 2019.
He said: “President Puigdemont was arrested on his arrival in Sardinia, where he was travelling in his capacity as MEP.”
‘Rebellion’
Puigdemont was charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds by the Spanish authorities after he proclaimed Catalan independence in 2017. The proclamation prompted the imposition of direct rule over Catalonia from Madrid.
He fled to Belgium, where he presided over a 14-member government in exile.
In 2019 he was elected as a member of the European parliament. This gave him immunity before the parliament voted to end this status in March this year.
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General Franco’s ghosts still rule in Spain
Spend your holiday cash somewhere other than fascist Spain.
Good time to remind folks that Julian Assange is still held in high security prison.
On what charge?
The Tories would do exactly the same thing here if it came to it. As would Labour and their ‘Spanish methods’.
The Spanish Government are an absolute disgrace. The Catalan Government, led by Carles Puigdemont, informed Madrid of their intentions. A majority voted in favour for independence in a fair & free election, but we’re overruled by Madrid and hunted down like criminals. Spain is no democracy. It’s a political pariah. Madrid even interfered in the Scottish independence vote after Unionists called in favours when then SNP FM Alex Salmons said he wanted Scotland to rejoin the EU as a member-state, and Spain said it would use its veto to stop it from joining. No doubt with Catalonia in mind Spain,… Read more »
Spain now joins Israel, France and Myanmar as countries whose treatment of their national minorities compels me to refuse to visit them or buy anything from them. I’m disappointed in Italy over this.