Arrest warrant lifted: Puigdemont before returning home

Possible return from exile

Arrest warrant lifted: Puigdemont before returning home

Nine years after the independence referendum in Catalonia, the arrest warrant against the then separatist leader has been lifted. The way is now clear for a return home.

As the Catalan separatist leader and then head of the regional government of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, on October 30, 2017 Belgium fled, he probably did not expect that it would take nine years before he could return home as a free man. After the failed attempt, the financially strong region Catalonia in the northeast of the country Spain To break out, he had to go into hiding and was smuggled into exile in Belgium by supporters in a night-and-dagger operation. Since then there has been an arrest warrant against him, which has now been lifted following a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court today. This means that the 63-year-old can now return to his homeland as a free man.

Under Puigdemont’s aegis, Catalonia was plunged into chaos after the illegal independence referendum and a subsequent decision to secede from Spain in 2017. The conservative central government at the time placed the region under compulsory administration. While Puigdemont and other members of the government fled abroad, his colleagues who remained in the country were sentenced to prison terms of up to 13 years, but were later pardoned by the government under left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in order to take the steam out of the Catalonia conflict. However, this was not possible with Puigdemont because only those who were convicted can be pardoned.

The Spanish justice system tried for years to get hold of him. She issued a national and later a European arrest warrant. The initial allegations were of rebellion and sedition, which could be punished with long prison sentences. The charge of rebellion was later dropped because the separatists did not incite violence in 2017. The crime of rioting was abolished in 2023. What remained was the accusation of embezzlement of public funds. And it was long-lasting.

In 2024, the Sánchez government passed an amnesty law that was supposed to cover all offenses related to the 2017 independence referendum. The Supreme Court, however, refused to apply the amnesty to Puigdemont and other comrades-in-arms. The judges resorted to a daring legal construction.

The judge in charge of the Supreme Court, Pablo Llarena, argued that the separatists had enriched themselves personally by using public money for their personal project of a referendum. In this way they would have avoided using their own money and thus enriched themselves personally. However, personal enrichment was expressly not granted amnesty in 2024.

The Constitutional Court has now overturned this interpretation of the amnesty law. The Constitutional Court justified its opposite decision by saying that it contradicts the spirit and purpose of the law and contradicts the amnesty law. The use of public funds for the referendum was clearly covered by the amnesty. The Supreme Court interpreted the term “personal financial gain” too broadly by extending this offense to the embezzlement of public funds for the referendum.