bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

The Guardian

A Spanish judge has issued an international arrest warrant on Friday for Catalonia’s ousted president a day after she jailed eight members of the region’s separatist government pending possible charges over last week’s declaration of independence.
In the latest twist in Spain’s worst political crisis in four decades, a national court judge issued a European arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont in response to a request from state prosecutors.
Belgium said it will study the request.
Puigdemont flew to Brussels earlier this week with a handful of his deposed ministers after Spanish authorities removed him and his cabinet from office for pushing ahead with the declaration despite repeated warnings that it was illegal.
Puigdemont’s Belgian lawyer has already said his client will fight extradition without seeking political asylum.

Puigdemont was summoned to appear at Spain’s national court on Thursday to give evidence relating to possible charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds, but failed to appear. He has said he will only return to Spain if he is offered guarantees that the judicial process he will face will be fair.
In a written request to the judge, prosecutors said that Puigdemont and four other members of his administration were aware that they had been ordered to testify, but had chosen not to attend.
Of the nine former ministers who did appear in court in Madrid on Thursday, eight were jailed.
A ninth Catalan minister, Santi Vila, was released from custody on Friday after posting bail. Vila, who resigned from Puigdemont’s government a day before the independence declaration appealed, called for action as he left prison near Madrid, saying: “I ask for all political parties across to Spain, appealing to their democratic values, to put an end this terrible situation that has put politicians in prison.”
Spain issues arrest warrant for sacked Catalan president as eight of his ministers are jailed
The Spanish government has insisted that the jailings were not politically motivated.
Spain’s education minister, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, said the matter had been decided by a judge, adding the government was instead focusing on elections called by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for December.
“There is a separation of powers in Spain and what happened yesterday is in the realm of the justice system and beyond the reach of the government,” Méndez de Vigo said on Friday.
“What the government guarantees is that there will be elections where the parties which want to run can present their programmes, and we hope that the election can end this period of uncertainty and the deterioration of harmonious coexistence in Catalonia.”

Lawyers for those under investigation said their clients would appeal against the judge’s decision, which they described as unjustified, disproportionate and predetermined.
In a televised address on Thursday evening Puigdemont branded the detention of his colleagues a “very serious attack on democracy” and called for their immediate release.
Speaking as thousands of people protested across Catalonia, he said: “Imprisoning political leaders for fulfilling an electoral commitment breaks down the basic principles of democracy.”
On Friday, judges at the national court refused an appeal to release two grass roots pro-independence leaders who were remanded in custody last month as part of a separate investigation into alleged sedition.
The jailing of Jordi Sánchez, the president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), and Jordi Cuixart, the president of Òmnium Cultural, brought hundreds of thousands of Catalans out on to the streets in protest.

A parallel Supreme Court session for six parliamentary officials, including Carme Forcadell, the speaker of the regional parliament, was postponed until next week following a request from their lawyers.
Spain has been convulsed by crisis since Puigdemont’s government held a unilateral independence referendum in defiance of Spain’s government, constitution and constitutional court on October 1.
Minutes after the vote in the Catalan parliament in favour of independence last Friday, the Spanish senate granted the government in Madrid unprecedented powers to impose direct rule on Catalonia under article 155 of the constitution.
Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, used the article to sack Puigdemont and his government and announce snap regional elections on December 21.
‘I’ve never felt Spanish’: pro-independence Catalans explain why they feel no loyalty to Madrid
Puigdemont said on Friday that he was ready to stand in the election, telling Belgian state television RTBF: “It’s possible to run a campaign from anywhere.”
“We consider ourselves a legitimate government,” he said. “There must be a continuity to tell the world what’s going on in Spain … It’s not with a government in jail that the elections will be neutral, independent, normal.”
A previous commitment to accept the election results had allayed fears that secessionists might boycott the ballot in the hope of denying it legitimacy.


Swiss ski resort bar inferno joins long list of world’s worst club fires

Spanish town reaches deal to share El Gordo jackpot after ticket error

China slaps tariffs on EU cheese and cream amid trade row

TikTok deal could show way forward for US-China engagement

Spain

European arrest warrant issued by Spain against Catalan’s ousted leader

Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont (C) leads in singing the Catalan anthem “Els Segadors” after a Catalan parliament session in Barcelona. The Spanish judge leading the investigation into Catalan separatists issued on November 3, 2017 a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is interviewed on Belgian RTBF television in Brussels, Belgium, November 3, 2017. RTBF Televison via REUTERS

epa06306798 People demonstrate to protest against the imprisonment of eight former members of Catalan government, at Sant Jaume square, in Barcelona, Spain, 03 November 2017. A Spanish judge ruled on 02 November that the ex-vice president of Catalonia and eight former regional cabinet members be imprisoned without bail pending trial. Junqueras and the cabinet members are facing charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds for their alleged involvement in an illegal separatist referendum and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence. EPA-EFE/QUIQUE GARCIA

Pro-Catalan independence demonstrators with signs calling for the freeing of political prisoners, stage a protests rally near the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Vidal

News

World

Europe