Belgian Judge Frees Fugitive Catalan Leader.
Belgian Judge Frees Ousted Catalan Leader Pending Extradition Decision
Carles Puigdemont and four former regional officials, wanted in Spain on charges of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds, are banned from leaving country.
A Belgian judge ordered the conditional release of ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and four former officials sought by Spain.
Mr. Puigdemont and his allies on Sunday had turned themselves in to Belgian authorities, after Spanish authorities on Friday requested their extraditions following their flight to Brussels last week.
The ousted officials and Mr. Puigdemont are wanted in Spain on charges of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds as part of their two-year bid to see Catalonia secede from Spain.
The Belgian judge, after holding hearings with Mr. Puigdemont, the other four officials and their lawyers, decided to release them under condition that they don’t leave Belgium, the Brussels prosecutor’s office said. Under the conditional release, the five former officials also have to reside at a fixed address, attend court hearings and comply with Belgian authorities’ requests, the office said.
A Belgian court will make its first decision on the extradition within 15 days. It can be appealed twice, extending Mr. Puigdemont’s legal battle for as long as two months. The ruling of the highest appeal court, the Cassation Court, will be final.
Belgium is one of the few European Union countries where political-asylum applications from other EU nations aren’t routinely dismissed. Belgium also has a history of diplomatic tension with Spain over several rejected extraditions of Basque separatists linked to the separatist organization ETA. Mr. Puigdemont’s lawyer, Paul Bekaert, successfully defended Basque clients in the mid-1990s and early 2000s.
Mr. Puigdemont and his party have maintained close ties with Belgium’s Dutch-speaking nationalists. New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) leader Bart De Wever described him as a friend who is “always welcome here.”
On Sunday, Belgian interior minister Jan Jambon, who is an N-VA member, criticized the Spanish government for its response to the Catalan crisis and for jailing the former officials who returned to Barcelona.
“What have they done wrong? They simply fulfilled the mandate they got from their voters,” Mr. Jambon told Flemish broadcaster VTM.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, currently the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, also expressed sympathy for the Catalan fugitive. On his Twitter page, he said that it would be shocking if the Belgian judge decided to keep Mr. Puigdemont in custody.
- [Wall Street Journal]
Carles Puigdemont and four former regional officials, wanted in Spain on charges of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds, are banned from leaving country.
A Belgian judge ordered the conditional release of ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and four former officials sought by Spain.
Mr. Puigdemont and his allies on Sunday had turned themselves in to Belgian authorities, after Spanish authorities on Friday requested their extraditions following their flight to Brussels last week.
The ousted officials and Mr. Puigdemont are wanted in Spain on charges of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds as part of their two-year bid to see Catalonia secede from Spain.
The Belgian judge, after holding hearings with Mr. Puigdemont, the other four officials and their lawyers, decided to release them under condition that they don’t leave Belgium, the Brussels prosecutor’s office said. Under the conditional release, the five former officials also have to reside at a fixed address, attend court hearings and comply with Belgian authorities’ requests, the office said.
A Belgian court will make its first decision on the extradition within 15 days. It can be appealed twice, extending Mr. Puigdemont’s legal battle for as long as two months. The ruling of the highest appeal court, the Cassation Court, will be final.
Belgium is one of the few European Union countries where political-asylum applications from other EU nations aren’t routinely dismissed. Belgium also has a history of diplomatic tension with Spain over several rejected extraditions of Basque separatists linked to the separatist organization ETA. Mr. Puigdemont’s lawyer, Paul Bekaert, successfully defended Basque clients in the mid-1990s and early 2000s.
Mr. Puigdemont and his party have maintained close ties with Belgium’s Dutch-speaking nationalists. New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) leader Bart De Wever described him as a friend who is “always welcome here.”
On Sunday, Belgian interior minister Jan Jambon, who is an N-VA member, criticized the Spanish government for its response to the Catalan crisis and for jailing the former officials who returned to Barcelona.
“What have they done wrong? They simply fulfilled the mandate they got from their voters,” Mr. Jambon told Flemish broadcaster VTM.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, currently the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, also expressed sympathy for the Catalan fugitive. On his Twitter page, he said that it would be shocking if the Belgian judge decided to keep Mr. Puigdemont in custody.
- [Wall Street Journal]
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