The Constitutional Court (CC) will hold a plenary session this coming week in which it will decide on whether to admit Carles Puigdemont's appeal for protection against the non-application of the amnesty by Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena. In the request, the Junts leader includes a request, as a precautionary measure, for the CC to order the judge to lift the current arrest warrant on Spanish soil.

The Mossos d'Esquadra did not foresee the possibility that former president Carles Puigdemont would flee after his speech at the Arc de Triomf on August 8 last year. They already said so in the Supreme Court, and this Monday the then head of the force, Eduard Sallent, reiterated before the judge that Puig's movement. Judicial sources, Sallent has admitted that he cannot rule out that the three officers investigated for helping Puigdemont flee were aware of the details of the operation that tried to arrest him. in an accusation of cover-up and failure to prosecute crimes. on the operation that day, in which the body's leadership already acknowledged that there had been "errors"According to the same sources, Sallent also told the judge that the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) did not speak with the National Police regarding border control on a day when the police activated a cage operation, which was insufficient to catch Puigdemont before he left Catalonia.

From the beginning it was seen that the Supreme Court would place all possible obstacles to the application of the amnesty law to Carles Puigdemont and the rest of the main pro-independence leaders during 1-O, but especially to the former president. Això has contributed to a long and cumbersome judicial battle that this year, the prosecutors have visited a new capitol in the Supreme Court of Appeal, with both the Prosecutor's Office and the State Advocacy, together with Puigdemont's Advocate, Gonzalo Boye, defending that the amnesty was applied without delays when considering that it was not hi ha, such as defense judge Pablo Llarena, crime of embezzlement for mig. Boye has also defended that the case take place in the TSJC and that the Catalan judges be the ones to decide.

Former CUP MP Anna Gabriel has returned this Tuesday after almost five years of exile in Switzerland in order to appear before the Spanish Supreme Court (SSC). This was reported by surprise this morning by the court itself in a statement. Gabriel appeared accompanied by her lawyer, Iñigo Iruín Sanz, who also represents the former Catalan minister Meritxell Serret. In fact, Serret was the first exile to return to the country, and Gabriel just the second. After appearing before SSC judge Pablo Llarena, she was summoned for questioning in the near future and was subsequently released. Gabriel plans to return to Switzerland today.

It was a a dense session today at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) as it heard the questions raised by Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena after the Belgian courts refused the extradition of the former conseller Lluís Puig. Throughout the morning, all parties have been able to present their arguments and the European Commission, as guardian of the treaties and rules of the European Union, has defended the Spanish position. According to the Commission, Belgium should not have assessed whether or not Puig would have a fair trial in Spain when receiving the European arrest warrant, because "there is no systemic problem of rule of law" in Spain.

"In 2011 this magistrate received the medal of merit of Barcelona's Guàrdia Urbana delivered by Mayor Xavier Trias, of the same party as Carles Puigdemont, and when Quim Forn was first deputy mayor of Barcelona." "No impartial observer could see a lack of impartiality when Meritxell Serret appeared voluntarily before this magistrate and her freedom was agreed." "This magistrate has not appreciated that there are indications of criminality against some of those who were indicted in this procedure, such as Artur Mas, Marta Pascal or Neus Lloveras." Faced with the challenge presented by Puigdemont and the exiled former Catalan ministers, after he accepted an award from an entity that "fully defends the ideology of the far right" –in the defence's words–, the Villacisneros Foundation, the Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena answered that this distinction does not affect his impartiality as neither did that of the Guàrdia Urbana, received 10 years ago, and he tries to demonstrate it by listing "favourable" decisions for the defence.

"Well, that's 59... Time does not stand still, but neither do we. We will celebrate the 60th together at home". This phrase accompanied the photograph posted by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on his Instagram on the day of his birthday, last December 29. Quite a declaration of intentions (and of confidence in the judicial resolutions he expects), taking into account that 2022 will be the key year in which exiles' legal battle will reach its outcome. It is expected that the resolutions on the preliminary questions raised by the Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena and on the immunity of the Junts MEPs will be announced before June. Probably between March and April, as explained to ARA by sources of the defence for former Catalan government members who are in Belgium. This means that, four years after leaving Catalonia, during the first half of this year it will be clear if exiles win the battle against the State over extraditions and if, through the Luxembourg resolutions, paths are opened for their return.

Spain already has partners to defend its position in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the preliminary rulings against former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and the other exiles. Romania and Poland are the only EU states that have backed Spanish Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena, who questions the ability of Belgian judges to refuse to extradite former minister Lluís Puig and, by assimilation, to other exiles in Belgium. As advanced by La Razón and confirmed by sources of the defence, these two countries are interested in the case, as is Belgium, although for opposite reasons: it supports the criterion of its own courts.

Spanish Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena has perplexed the European courts and is the main responsible for the fact that the international image of the Spanish state is at a low ebb, at least in the legal sphere. His obsession to achieve the extradition of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has even led him, in the case of Italy, to try to deceive the European General Court (EGC), which thought that the European arrest warrant was suspended because the Attorney General's Office had said so. This Monday, however, Sassari's Court of Appeal has decided to suspend the extradition procedure until the EGC rules on Puigdemont's immunity and the Court of Justice of the European Union rules on the pre-trial question Llarena submitted when a Belgian court rejected the extradition of former minister Lluís Puig.

The first time that Carles Puigdemont declared before judge Plinia Azzena in Sassari it was in a conference call from Bancali prison. This Monday the former Catalan president will arrive from Belgium and, if there are no surprises, his legal team expects him to return in freedom and without precautionary measures. Ten days after being arrested at the airport of Alghero and imprisoned overnight, the MEP has another appointment before Sassari's Court of Appeal to deal with the Spanish Supreme Court's (SSC) arrest warrant.

Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena insists and asks Italy to hand over Carles Puigdemont, since, he stresses, the European Arrest Warrant against him is still in force. This is a confirmation of his words last Friday, the day after the former president was arrested in Sardinia. Llanera has written to the Sassari court of appeal to clarify its interpretation of the judicial mess surrounding the Catalan leader. He already stated that the European Arrest Warrant remained in force and that the preliminary question sent to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on March 9 this year did not mean the warrant was withdrawn.

Meritxell Serret, Catalan Minister of Agriculture at the time of the 2017 Independence Referendum, was charged on March 21, 2018 for alleged disobedience and embezzlement of public funds. And it is precisely for these two crimes for which she could now be judged after the investigating judge, Pablo Llarena, communicated this Thursday that he had completed the indictment and sent the case on to the second chamber of the Supreme Court, presided over by Manuel Marchena. "After completing the proceedings been deemed necessary for the verification of the crime, as well as to determine the defendant's participation in the events and the concurrent circumstances in its commission and considering any other inquiry unnecessary, it is appropriate to conclude the present indictment," the four-page order reads.

Unexpected changed of tack by Catalan political exiles. This Thursday morning the former minister of Agriculture Meritxell Serret has returned to take her seat in the Catalan Parliament and regularise her situation before the Supreme Court. Exiled in Belgium since the declaration of independence in 2017, Serret has appeared before the high court accompanied by her lawyer to make herself available to the investigating judge, Pablo Llarena. The magistrate - through a judicial secretary - has decided to summon her on April 8 for questioning and has allowed her to be released in the meantime. At 6pm she is expected to arrive at her village, Vallfogona de Balaguer, where ERC has already convened a welcome rally in which she will be joined by Speaker Roger Torrent and the ministers Bernat Solé and Teresa Jordà.

The process to withdraw MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí's immunity has not been smooth nor has it involved unanimous support for the Spanish justice system, rather the opposite. Despite the final approval of the request, the result draws a clear division in the European Parliament around the Catalan issue: 400 votes in favor, 248 against and 45 abstentions. In other words, 42% of MEPs have refused to endorse the reactivation of the process of extradition of Catalan pro-independence leaders who are in exile outside Spain and who won the support of nearly one million votes in the last European elections. As Toni Comín said, this is a "political victory" for Catalan independence, which once again sees how things in Europe are seen substantially different than in the Spanish state.

It is back to the courts for Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí after their parliamentary immunity was withdrawn this morning. The result of the European Parliament plenary vote on Monday is the definitive confirmation which comes as no surprise. By 400 votes in favour, 248 against and 45 abstentions, in the case of Puigdemont, and by 404 votes in favour, 247 against and 42 abstentions in the case of Comín and Ponsatí, the European Parliament has decided to grant the suspension of immunity requested by the Spanish Supreme Court so that the judicial process can continue in Belgium and Scotland for their extraditions

Pablo Llarena is back on the charge in Europe. After more than three years of fiascos due to the refusal of several European courts to grant the extradition of the exiles of the Independence bid through Euro-orders presented by the Supreme Court, Llarena, who is in charge of the case against the independence movement, seems determined to play it out before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Llarena has finally expressed his willingness to transfer to the highest EU judicial instance a pre-trial question to clarify the limits of the state courts at the time of rejecting the euro-orders. It is, therefore, to finally set a general position. The Belgian refusal to send to Spain Catalan ex Minister of Culture Lluís Puig Gordi has the last straw for Llarena who has never given his arm to twist before the refusal of his European colleagues, whom he has not hesitated to accuse of disloyalty. In addition, despite the fact that there is still a lot to be decided, he has also wanted to take advantage of the decision of the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in favour of withdrawing Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí's immunity.

Neither the German courts, nor the Scottish or Belgian courts have so far accepted the arguments of the Supreme Court to extradite the exiles of the Procés. The last to do so was the Belgian Court of Appeal, the second judicial instance, which in January again denied the extradition of the ex Catalan minister of Culture Lluís Puig. Now, the investigating magistrate, Pablo Llarena, intends to put a stop to it by raising the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) with a preliminary ruling to clarify the limits that state courts have to reject extraditions. The refusal to extradite Puig is firm because the Belgian prosecutor's office renounced to file an appeal, so Llarena's intention is that the CJEU sets the basis for the resolution of the next Euro-orders, which are already being prepared for when Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí lose immunity in the European Parliament.