The Spanish Constitutional Court has cleared the way for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to return to Spain as a free man, Spanish media reported, quoted by DPA.
The arrest warrant for Puigdemont, who has been living in exile since Catalonia's illegal independence referendum in 2017, must be lifted, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE and the newspaper “Pais“ reported.
After a failed attempt to secede the wealthy Catalonia region in northeastern Spain, Puigdemont was forced to go into hiding, and his supporters helped him secretly leave Spain and travel to Belgium.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in July that a Spanish amnesty law, approved in 2024 to pardon Catalan politicians and pro-independence activists who took part in the 2017 separatist referendum, is compatible with EU law, Spanish news agency EFE reported.
“(The Court) does not oppose a law which, with the aim of reducing institutional and political tensions and facilitating the reconciliation process, provides for the cessation of criminal liability“, an CJEU judge said in delivering the ruling.
The ruling paves the way for the Spanish Constitutional Court, whose decision will be crucial for the possible return to Spain of former Catalan government leader Carles Puigdemont, as it must determine whether the Supreme Court should grant him amnesty for the crime of embezzlement.
The EU's top court ruled that granting an amnesty for criminal liability arising from the misuse of public funds linked to the independence process would not jeopardise the bloc's financial interests.
The court also upheld the application of the amnesty law to terrorist offences in a case before the Spanish National Court involving the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), finding that it did not undermine the EU's anti-terrorism directive, as it only excluded terrorist acts committed in connection with the Catalan independence movement that had caused serious harm. damages.
Puigdemont appealed to the Constitutional Court the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court not to apply the amnesty law to him. The court argued that granting an amnesty for embezzlement would endanger the EU's financial interests, as the former Catalan leader had personally benefited by not paying for the referendum with his own funds.
Source: www.bta.bg