Legal experts and members of the National Police Corps consulted by ‘Euronews’ assure that the arrest of the Catalan secessionist leader who is fleeing from justice is a fact.
Carles Puigdemont He is back to Spain. This Thursday he intends to attend the investiture plenary session of the president of the Generalitat. He himself has announced that he undertakes what he considers “the return journey from exile.”
“In conditions of democratic normality, for a deputy like me to announce his intention to attend the session would be unnecessary and irrelevantbut ours are not conditions of democratic normality,” stated the secessionist leader fled from justice.
The reality is that about him, after The Supreme Court decided not to amnesty the crime of embezzlement of public funds, an arrest warrant is out which must be fulfilled once you enter Spanish territory.
But it is not known what is really going to happen, given that Puigdemont intends to attend the investiture plenary session of Salvador Illa as a regional deputy. It is not clear, for example, if they can stop him once you enter the interior of the Chamber.
‘Euronews’ has spoken with members of the National Police Corps. “When he enters Spain he will be perfectly located and if there is really a desire to arrest him, the Police will do so,” says César Alvarado, one of the spokespersons for the Association A Police for the 21st Century.
Regarding the possibility of Puigdemont taking ‘refuge’ inside Parliament, Alvarado clarifies that said space “does not have a special condition” so “it could be stopped at any given moment right there.”
The president of the autonomous Chamber is Joseph Rull, member of Junts, the group of which Puigdemont himself is a member. The same He has offered his office to the escaped leader as a safe place. Given these facts, the People’s Party accuses him of “twist the rules” to “adapt it to Puigdemont’s needs.”
What is clear is that with his return you risk being arrested. Lawyer Antonio Gómez de Olea explains to ‘Eruonews’ that within the Parliament “there may be some protection or, let’s say, impediments to arresting the former Catalan vice president.”
“But ultimately, since it is national territory, it will end up being arrested sooner or later, because a Parliament It does not have the same legal status as an Embassy from a community or third country,” adds Gómez de Olea.
All this makes us think that arrest is inevitable. Now, they could carry it out from the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra; or the National Police Corps o to Civil Guard. The protocol is different depending on the body that carries it out.
What will happen when Carles Puigdemont is arrested?
“If the National Police Corps or the Civil Guard does it, it would go directly to the Supreme Court. If the Mossos arrest him, a commander must do itafter greeting and putting him into the vehicle without handcuffing to take him to the Court on duty,” details the agent Cesar Alvarado.
It must be taken into account that the top boss of the Mossos, Eduard Sallent, He is on vacation, so it will be a mayor who coordinates the arrest and carries it out. It is foreseeable that the agents act before Puigdemont even arrives in Barcelona, where there is planned a reception by leaders of their training at the Arc de Triomphe, a place chosen for its significance, one hour before the plenary session.
The lawyer consulted by ‘Euronews’ assures that “could be detained at border posts both by sea, by land or through arrival via air traffic. As between France and Spain there is free movement, they may not stop their vehicle at that point if they come by car. In that case they would arrest him once he is located in the national territory.”
Once transferred to the Court, it “would decide on the freedom of Carles Puigdemont and it is most likely that his lawyer will allege the Amnesty Law to defend the freedom of the investigated,” says Antonio Gómez de Olea.
Transfer to Madrid and statement taking
“If the judge on duty considers that the person under investigation must be placed at the disposal of Judge Llarena, who is the one who issued the arrest warrant against himhe would be transferred to Madrid and his statement would be taken here,” he adds.
ADVERTISINGOnce in Madrid “it will be decided, depending on the Article 505 of the Criminal Procedure Lawif he should go to provisional prison or if, on the contrary, he should be released,” he says.
Is the former ‘president’ Carles Puigdemont going to jail?
“He could go to provisional prison as long as Judge Llarena assesses three concepts: risk of flight, destruction of evidence or repeat crime“This suggests, according to legal experts consulted by ‘Euronews’, that provisional detention is possible in this case.
Other police sources with whom this media has contacted assure that the agents of the Police Intervention Unitsknown as ‘riot police’, are being summoned before his possible imminent transfer to the Catalan capital due to anticipated altercations and riots.
Los Defense Committees of the Republic and associations like All Culturalactivist groups organized in favor of the independence movement whose leaders have been tried for serious crimes of sedition or public disorder and even accused of terrorismhave called for demonstrations and rallies against the investiture of Salvador Illa.
ADVERTISINGThese groups are expected to can coordinate mass protests in case it occurs the foreseeable arrest of the pro-independence politician this Thursday, before his arrival at the plenary session.
Why is there an arrest warrant against Puigdemont?
The leader of Junts He fled from Spanish justice in 2017 and he did not return even on the occasion of his mother’s funeral. He left the country after carrying out illegally and outside democratic channels a unilateral declaration of independence imposed on against Spanish legislationof the will of the opposition, of one’s own Spanish constitution and after the warning of General Council of the Judiciary of the illegality of doing so.
This year the Government of Spain approved a controversial Amnesty Law “for the reconciliation” that the forgetting of such crimes entails. The norm is the result of the demand of the two main pro-independence parties with representation in the Spanish Congress of Deputies (Junts, de Puigdemont; and ERC) to invest Pedro Sánchez as president.
Although The Law came into force and was appliederasing the crimes committed within the framework of the illegal and independence process in Catalonia led by Puigdemont in 2017, the judge in the case, the judge of the Supreme Court Pablo Llarena, did not consider amnestiable crime of embezzlement of public funds which is also attributed to the leader of Junts.
ADVERTISINGThe Spanish Justice understands that the Catalan Government at that time, led by Puigdemont, malversó public backgrounds diverting money to celebrate the illegal referendum of October 1, fact for which the arrest warrant remains active.
