Spain lifts arrest warrant for Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont
The ruling clears a major legal hurdle for the exiled Catalan leader, whose case helped define Spain’s disputed 2024 amnesty law.
- On Tuesday, Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena revoked the national arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont, removing a major legal hurdle to the former president of Catalonia returning to Spain after the Constitutional Court endorsed the 2024 amnesty law.
- Previously, the Supreme Court refused to apply the amnesty law covering the "procés" to embezzlement charges, but the Constitutional Court overruled this after upholding an appeal from Bassa, forcing the warrant's cancellation.
- After Madrid invoked the Spanish Constitution in October 2017, Puigdemont fled to Belgium, though he briefly returned to Barcelona in August 2024 for the investiture of Salvador Illa before departing again.
- According to Infobae, Puigdemont will make an "institutional declaration" on Tuesday evening at Waterloo, Belgium, appearing alongside former regional ministers Antoni Com, Llu, and Puig at 6pm CET.
- The adoption of the 2024 amnesty law has opened the prospect of a definitive return for Puigdemont and other independence leaders to Spain, marking a significant shift in legal status for those who fled.
218 Articles
218 Articles
The Spanish Supreme Court quashed the arrest warrant for Carlos Puchdemon, who had been in Belgium for almost nine years, which opened the way for the leader of Catalan separatists to return home.
It is too early to know what impact his return will have on the election campaign for next month's legislative elections in Spain.
The Spanish Supreme Court lifted the arrest warrant against the Catalan independence leader on Tuesday
After nine years of exile in Belgium in order to escape a trial in Spain, the regional president who had fallen in 2017 will be able to return to the political life of his autonomous community and relaunch his party in a loss of speed. The last charges against him were withdrawn on Tuesday, 6 October.
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