The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled Tuesday that Belgium’s decision to refuse the extradition of Catalan separatist Lluís Puig to Spain is not legal — unless it finds “systemic deficiencies” in Spain’s judicial system.
“An executing judicial authority may not, in principle, refuse to execute a European arrest warrant,” the ruling published on Tuesday morning reads.
But it added that the “authority must, however, refuse to execute that European arrest warrant if it finds that there are systemic or generalised deficiencies affecting the judicial system of that Member State and that the court called upon to try the requested person in that Member State clearly lacks jurisdiction.”
The court’s judgment sets a precedent for the cases of the Catalan politicians who are currently European lawmakers, namely former president of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, for whom the CJEU temporarily restored Parliamentary immunity in May 2022.
Their extradition procedure is currently on hold and the court’s final judgment on immunity is expected to arrive in March.
The three, together with Puig and Mertixell Serret, fled Spain in 2017, facing arrest warrants for their roles in Catalonia’s controversial 2017 independence referendum. So far, none of the appeals to overturn the European Parliament’s decision to withdraw their immunity have been successful.
The 15-judge grand chamber of the European court, the decisions of which cannot be appealed, was responding to a preliminary question raised by Spain’s Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena on Belgium’s reasons for refusing the extradition orders, which she handed in after the Brussels Court of Appeal definitively rejected the extradition of Puig in January 2021.
Spain’s Supreme Court dropped sedition charges against Puigdemont this year, but Spanish public prosecutors reacted by filing fresh charges of aggravated public disorder and misuse of public funds against Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí.