Toni Comín, Lluís Puig and Clara Ponsatí await the call of the authorities to appear at the police station. The Supreme Court has revived the orders of a european arrest and surrender against the three exconsejeros catalans, who fled from Spain in October of 2017 with the expresident Carles Puigdemont. The Prosecutor’s office in Brussels has confirmed that it has already received the euróordenes, and point out that you are waiting for them to get the translated version to one of the three official languages of the country: French, Dutch or German. With the process gaining speed, the defense Comín, Puig and Ponsatí —the first two are in Belgium and the third in Scotland (Uk)— has assured on Tuesday that, as happened in the two euroórdenes precedents, will collaborate with the justice and submitted voluntarily to the police. “We will go as soon as we give it,” he pointed out to this newspaper, the lawyer Gonzalo Boye.
The judge Pablo Llarena, who taught the cause of the procés of the Supreme court, has followed the criteria of the office of the Prosecutor and has revived euroórdenes against these three who escaped, although it has made a change on what was requested by the public ministry: to Ponsatí, exconsejera of Education, resignation to ask for delivery for malfeasance, and only the requests for sedition. Prosecutors attributed the diversion of funds to the exconsejera by the assignment of schools to the referendum illegal independence of October 1, 2017, but in the judgment against Oriol Junqueras, and the 11 other pro-independence leaders on trial in the high court, explains that in the oral hearing is not credited that such a transfer would be prejudicial to the public coffers, so that Llarena has not ruled out involving Ponsatí in the crime of embezzlement.
Llarena has assumed the thesis of the Prosecution to Comín, to the one who asks for the surrender of sedition and embezzlement, crimes for which Junqueras and three exconsejeros were sentenced to between 12 and 13 years in prison; and for Puig, who was claimed for embezzling and disobedience. The orders of a european arrest and surrender of Comín and Puig have been referred to the competent judicial authority of Belgium, and Clara Ponsatí, to the judicial authority in Scotland, in addition to the coordination offices european police Sirene. International orders have been sent to Interpol in anticipation of any of these processed can go to a country that does not belong to the EU.
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The Prosecutor’s office will ask the delivery of four pro-independence leaders fled and waiver to apply to other two-The judge postponed until the December 16 hearing on the euroorden of Puigdemont Puigdemont, what now?
In a car of 59 pages, the judge Llarena stresses that the judgment rendered by the Supreme is not directly extrapolated to the accused in absentia, who have not been judged, and face the facts that offers the research. Llarena says that it “cannot but conclude that the judgment reaffirms the conclusion of the indictment that the defendants perpetrated a series of actions that, without security but with firmness, have reasonable grounds of criminality.” The judgment has determined that Llarena does not claim to exconsejeros by rebellion (a crime for which they were processed Comín and Ponsatí), but for sedition, the type of crime for which the Supreme court sentenced the nine defendants who are in pretrial detention.
The ruling has also stated that the Government agreement by which Puigdemont and all the consellers assumed jointly and severally the costs of the referendum illegal on the 1 October 2017 was not sufficient to convict for embezzlement, so that the court acquitted him of this crime to five exconsejeros that in principle they were accused of diverting public funds (Josep Rull, Joaquim Forn, Santi Vila, Meritxell Borràs & Carles Mundó).
embezzlement
On the alleged misappropriation of Comín and Puig, the judge Llarena indicates that it addressed expenses for the 1-Or from different departments, among which is the distribution 56,000 registered letters with appointment of positions to the polling stations and 5.346.734 envelopes regular with census cards, which addressed the company Unipost SA, with whom he brokered a framework agreement for postal delivery which allowed for the circumvention of bidding later. “A parcel of 979.661,96 euros of the amount, the payment of which is masked and fractionated, attributed to the ministry of Culture, governed by Lluís Puig i Chunk, the amount of 238.003,35 euros, and the ministry of Health, governed by Antonio Comín i Oliveres, the amount of 233.180,55 euros”, says the self.
The process will continue in Belgium the same script with Carles Puigdemont a little more than two weeks. Comín and Puig will be transferred from instances of police until the building of the Prosecutor’s office, where they will take a statement and, if all goes as planned, will be released with several precautionary measures: communicate your domicile, be at the disposal of the judicial authorities and ask for permission in case you wish to leave the country.
In the case of Ponsatí, the defense expected that no precautionary measures. In the second euroorden, after surrendering at a police station in Edinburgh, a court released her after taking away the passport. Ponsatí decided to leave Belgium to join a post as professor of the university of st Andrews. In your new destination received a major financial support to face the judicial process: raised more than € 135,000 in a cuestación public to pay for his defense.
it Remains to elucidate what happens with the leader of ERC, Marta Rovira, flight in Geneva (Switzerland), where it is represented by the lawyer of Jean-Marc Carnicé. Being in a country located outside the European Union, it is not necessary to request a european arrest warrant, but to initiate an extradition procedure traditional, more complex, so that the request of delivery could be postponed.
