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Date Published: 13/01/2023

ARCHIVED - Treason charges dropped against fugitive former Catalan president

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The separatist leader could still face 12 years in prison if he returns to Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Treason charges dropped against fugitive former Catalan president

The Supreme Court in Spain has applied the reform of the sedition law to exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, essentially reducing the charge of treason against him to one of “aggravated public disobedience”. The decision will also apply to several ex-government officials who are serving lengthy prison sentences.

A crime of sedition relates to inciting people to rebel against the state or monarch, and Puigdemont’s cabinet was found guilty back in 2017 when it staged an unauthorised and illegal referendum on Catalan independence.

While many of the separatists were jailed for treason, the former president evaded capture and fled to Brussels. Now, with the more serious charges dropped, Puigdemont’s return to Spain is back on the table.

He’s not completely off the hook, however, as magistrate Pablo Llarena has maintained the prosecution order for embezzlement of government funds, which carries a prison sentence of up to 12 years, and the reduced disobedience charge. He also faces disqualification from public office for up to 20 years and immediate imprisonment once he lands in Spain.

In October 2021, the former president was arrested in Sardinia as he was the subject of a Eurowarrant. He was quickly released and the arrest order has been revoked, and the Spanish judge is currently waiting on a decision from the EU courts on whether Puigdemont and two other separatist politicians should be granted parliamentary immunity.

However, Puigdemont and his former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig have been issued with new search and capture orders for embezzlement and disobedience.

Two other infamous exiles of the dissolved Catalan government will benefit greatly from the new sedition law. Clara Ponsatí, who was head of Education in 2017, has been cleared of embezzlement charges and she, along the former general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, will only face a disobedience charge, which doesn’t carry a prison sentence.

If the pair should choose to return from Spain, the controversial law reform means that the worst they will face is a two-year disqualification from politics.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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