Update | Spain issues arrest warrant for sacked Catalan president as eight of his ministers are jailed
Carles Puigdemont, who is in Belgium, will not return to Spain to face trial over independence bid says his lawyer
A Spanish judge has issued an arrest warrant for ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, his lawyer told Belgian state broadcaster VRT on Thursday, after eight of his separatist ex-ministers were ordered jailed pending trial over the region’s ill-fated independence push.
“I have just heard from my client that the warrant has been issued for the president and four of his ministers who are in Belgium,” lawyer Paul Bekaert told VRT.
Catalan political parties and civic groups denounced the court’s decision to “jail the legitimate government of Catalonia” and hundreds of people gathered outside the Catalan regional parliament calling for the eight ministers to be freed.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Puigdemont and his government on Friday, hours after the Catalan parliament made a unilateral declaration of independence – a vote boycotted by the opposition and declared illegal by Spanish courts.
Puigdemont’s lawyer in Belgium said his client would stay away from Spain while the political climate was “not good”.
“The legitimate government of Catalonia has been sent to jail for its ideas and for having been faithful to the mandate approved by the parliament of Catalonia,” he said.
The jailings of the secessionist leaders and Puigdemont’s flight to Belgium make it difficult for leading figures from the independence movement to stand in a snap election in the wealthy region called by the Spanish government for December 21.
Puigdemont said on Tuesday he would go back to Spain only if given unspecified guarantees by the Spanish government. His flight appears to have cost some support for his cause at home.
“President, enough is enough,” the influential Catalan newspaper el Peridico, which has been sceptical of the case for independence, said on its front page on Wednesday.
Following a tumultuous month, attention is gradually turning to the December vote. Protests taking place in central Barcelona on Thursday to support secessionist leaders as they testified in Madrid failed to attract a big crowd.
Several hundred people took part in another protest called after the nine leaders were ordered held in custody, many fewer than the hundreds of thousands who staged several demonstrations for independence over the last two months.
Cracks have appeared within the pro-independence coalition of centre-right and far-left parties as well as inside Puigdemont’s own PdeCat (Democratic Catalan Party) where some of his allies are now pushing for a negotiated solution with the central government.
The struggle has divided Catalonia itself and caused deep resentment across the rest of Spain.
In Madrid, 20 secessionist leaders had been summoned by two separate courts to testify over their role in holding a banned October 1 referendum on secession and later proclaiming independence from Spain. With Puigdemont and four others in Belgium, only 15 turned up.
All the members of the dismissed Catalan cabinet but one declined to answer questions from the state prosecutor and the High Court judge, who opened an investigation that could take several years before any potential trial.
“The defendants have played an active role by propelling the carefully designed secessionist process and overcoming all kinds of obstacles that could make them deviate from their final objective,” the judge said in the ruling that sent the defendants to jail.
She said the defendants, who could face jail sentences of up to 50 years, must be held in custody because they were a flight risk and could destroy evidence.
One of them, Santi Vila, who stepped down from the Catalan cabinet before a unilateral declaration of independence last Friday and has since then been pushing for a negotiated solution with the government, was granted bail of 50,000 euros (US$58,300).
A lawyer for several of the jailed Catalan leaders said they would appeal against the judge’s decision.
“The decision to hold them in custody is absolutely disproportionate as we consider the charges of rebellion and sedition lack any ground, no matter how much the prosecution insists on affirming it,” lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said.
Five senior regional lawmakers and the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell, were summoned by the Supreme Court, which handles the cases of people who enjoy parliamentary immunity.
The Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to give one more week to Forcadell and the Catalan lawmakers to prepare their defence and a new hearing will take place on November 9.
The courts have already told the Catalan secessionist leaders to deposit 6.2 million euros by Friday to cover potential liabilities.
