[ad_1]
The EU Normal Court docket on Wednesday (5 July) upheld the choice of the European Parliament to waive the parliamentary immunity of three Catalan separatist MEPs — Carles Puigdemont, Antoni Comín and Clara Ponsatí.
In 2019, 9 Catalan leaders in complete have been sentenced by Spain’s prime court docket to 9 to 13 years in jail for sedition and the misuse of public funds, over their position within the 2017 failed referendum on independence for Catalonia.
Puigdemont and Comín then took their seats within the EU Parliament in January 2020.
At that time, the parliament stated Puigdemont, Comín and Oriol Junqueras loved immunity as MEPs as of two July 2019, when their mandate began on the idea of the official declaration of the outcomes of the elections by the competent Spanish authorities — and in step with the ruling of the Court docket of Justice of the European Union (ECJ).
In 2020, the parliament introduced that it had acquired a petition from Spain’s Supreme Court docket to waive the immunity of each Catalan MEPs. And in 2021, it was lifted.
The Luxembourg court docket’s ruling confirms that suspension of their immunity, on the grounds that the info for which they’re being tried predate their parliamentary immunity.
However it doesn’t put an finish to the method.
The present common court docket choice is anticipated to be appealed earlier than the European Court docket of Justice throughout the subsequent two months — confirmed by the previous head of the regional Catalan authorities Puigdemont throughout a press convention held in parliament.
After these two months, the EU court docket of justice could have one other six months to make a decision, which the Catalan MEPs stated they anticipate to be “beneficial”.
“The EU Court docket’s choice confirms what we already knew, that the method of lifting immunity was flawless and carried out with all ensures,” stated Adrián Vázquez Lara, chair of the parliament’s authorized affairs committee (JURI), which was in control of dealing with the request to waive MEPs’ immunity.
“In the present day political dissent is extra threatened in Europe,” stated Puigdemont after the court docket introduced their choice.
Below an arrest warrant towards Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí — issued by the investigating choose of the Spanish Supreme Court docket — Puigdemont was arrested in Germany in 2018 and at an airport in Sardinia in 2021.
Additionally, final yr, Ponsatí was detained for hours by the police after returning to Barcelona following 5 years of exile.
Now the choose might reactivate the arrest warrant — however solely after a brand new request.
After Wednesday’s choice, Puigdemont sees his return to Spain “simply as shut and simply as far-off” as earlier than.
The MEP stated they’ll defend their place of what they see as political prosecution to the bitter finish. “This has no place in Europe. We believed it and we nonetheless imagine it,” he stated. “I cannot cease insisting on this path and insisting on my rights, as a result of they’re collective rights”.
In 2021, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez granted a pardon to the Catalan separatist leaders convicted.
[ad_2]
Source link