Puigdemont Warrant Lifted After Amnesty Ruling

Spain’s Supreme Court has lifted the arrest warrant for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, potentially allowing him to return to Spain ahead of a general election scheduled for November 29. Puigdemont fled to Belgium in 2017 after leading a failed bid for Catalonia to secede. Spanish authorities had sought him on allegations of embezzling public funds to organize an illegal independence referendum while he led Catalonia’s regional government. The decision followed a ruling by Spain’s Constitutional Court that the 2024 amnesty law for Catalan separatists also covers embezzlement cases. Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena lifted the warrant shortly afterward. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez welcomed the development, saying it could help Catalonia move forward and respond to what Catalan society had been demanding. The amnesty was passed by Sanchez’s government amid opposition from conservative and right-wing parties. It was intended to cover offenses linked to the secession attempt and ease tensions in Catalonia. The measure also helped Sanchez secure support from Catalan separatist parties after the 2023 election produced no clear majority, allowing him to remain in power. However, Puigdemont’s Junts party later withdrew its support, accusing Sanchez of failing to honor commitments, including granting amnesty to its leader. About 400 separatists have benefited from the amnesty. Puigdemont had been excluded after the Supreme Court initially ruled that the law did not apply to people accused of embezzlement. The Constitutional Court’s latest ruling came in response to an appeal by one of Puigdemont’s allies and reversed that obstacle. The decision comes amid political tensions: Junts recently opposed housing relief measures, and Sanchez called a snap election after protests over housing. The warrant’s lifting therefore coincides with a consequential campaign period, though the article does not say whether Puigdemont will return.

Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena has revoked the national arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia, removing a significant legal obstacle to his return to Spain. The decision followed a Constitutional Court ruling that rejected the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the 2024 amnesty law. That law covers people prosecuted in connection with Catalonia’s independence movement, including the 2017 referendum and related events. The legal dispute centered on whether public funds used to finance the referendum could be covered by the amnesty. The Supreme Court had said they could not, arguing that those who organized the referendum obtained a personal financial benefit. But the Constitutional Court upheld an appeal by former Catalan regional minister Dolors Bassa, rejecting that approach. Llarena then lifted the warrant for Puigdemont. Puigdemont has lived abroad since leaving Spain in October 2017, after the central government invoked Article 155 of the Constitution and took direct control of Catalonia. Although the 2024 amnesty law raised the prospect of his return, the Supreme Court had initially kept the national arrest warrant in force. In August 2024, Puigdemont briefly appeared in Barcelona at an event coinciding with Salvador Illa’s investiture as regional president, then left Spain without being detained. The article says the warrant’s removal substantially changes Puigdemont’s legal situation and opens the door to his return, though it does not report that he has decided to come back. Puigdemont announced plans to make an institutional declaration at a press conference in Waterloo, Belgium, alongside former regional ministers Antoni Comín and Lluís Puig.

A Spanish judge has lifted the arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont, the exiled former leader of Catalonia’s separatist movement, potentially allowing him to return to Spain before a general election scheduled for November. Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena acted after Spain’s Constitutional Court supported applying the country’s 2024 amnesty law to the crime of embezzlement. Puigdemont had been accused of using public funds to organize Catalonia’s 2017 independence referendum; courts had treated the alleged conduct as embezzlement. The amnesty law was introduced to ease political tensions in Catalonia after the failed independence bid, which provoked Spain’s most serious political crisis in decades. The ruling therefore changes Puigdemont’s immediate legal position and creates the possibility of his return, though the article does not say whether or when he will travel. It also places the development in the run-up to Spain’s November general election. The report is brief and provides no further detail about the court’s reasoning, the election’s political implications, or Puigdemont’s response.