"Enough, this is only a political persecution that has lasted for four years and which is not worthy of a European democracy." These are the words of Carles Puigdemont, at a press conference in Alghero flanked by lawyers Agostinangelo Marras and Gonzalao Boye.
According to the Catalan leader, "the attempt to prevent me from doing politics, from running as a candidate, from going around talking about the political conflict between Spain and Catalonia is not acceptable. This persecution perpetrated through the Supreme Court prevents a political solution to the conflict from being found. in progress, which is based on the recognition of the right to self-determination ".
Today the Sassari Court of Appeal suspended the extradition request for the MEP, on which hangs an arrest warrant from Madrid for the referendum on the independence of Catalonia in 2017.
"The game is suspended and we have to wait for the decisions of the European Court of Justice, the proceedings here in Sassari against Carles Puigdemont will be able to resume only after those decisions are final", reiterated defense lawyer Agostinangelo Marras.
"The European parliamentary immunity of Carles Puigdemont - he explained - is temporarily in force and will remain so until the EU Court of Justice will rule on the complaint he presented against the revocation decided by the European Parliament, but before that ruling a decision on his extradition is unthinkable ".
Not only. "With regard to a European arrest warrant against a person suspected for the same crimes but not covered by immunity, on two occasions Belgium ruled not to proceed, arguing that the territorial jurisdiction for that request for an arrest warrant rests with the judge of Catalonia. In this regard, the same judge of the Spanish Supreme Court has turned to the European Court of Justice, whose ruling is at this point preliminary ".
The comment of the Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares also arrived on the sentence: “We respect all judicial decisions, those we like best and those we like least”, he said. "We prefer to concentrate - he added - on the rapprochement agenda, which is positive for Catalonia, for Spain and also for Europe".
(Unioneonline / L)
The words of the lawyer
Puigdemont's exit from the Court of Appeal