A Spanish Supreme Court judge asked the European Parliament on Friday to strip the Catalonia region's ex-leader and another fugitive Catalan politician of the legal immunity they have as EU lawmakers.
Investigating Judge Pablo Llarena also upheld the European arrest warrants Spain issued for former regional president Carles Puigdemont and for Toni Comín, who was a member of his Cabinet.
Puigdemont's pro-secession government led a drive to break Catalonia away from Spain two years ago. He and Comín fled to Belgium in October 2017, days after the regional Catalan parliament passed a unilateral independence declaration.
Catalonia's former regional president Carles Puigdemont, center, shows his accreditation badge as he stands next to former Catalan regional minister Antoni Comin outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Friday, Dec. 20, 2019. In a potentially stinging reversal for Spanish justice authorities, the European Union's top court ruled that a former Catalan official serving a prison sentence for his role in a banned independence referendum two years ago had the right to parliamentary immunity when he was on trial. (AP PhotoFrancisco Seco)
Both won election in May to the European Parliament, along with Puigdemont's former No. 2, Oriol Junqueras. Members of the European Union's legislature have immunity from arrest, detention and prosecution.
After the EU's top court ruled against Spain's move to block the trio from taking their seats, they were accepted as MEPs.
Junqueras and several other members of Puigdemont's Cabinet remained in Spain and spent nearly two years in pretrial detention for their roles in the secession attempt. He was convicted of sedition and is serving a 13-year prison sentence in Spain.
Puigdemont, Comín and several other politicians fled the country and have thus far successfully fought extradition. Outstanding arrest warrants, including national ones, mean they would be immediately detained if they attempted to return home.