Italy suspends extradition case of Catalan separatist leader

An Italian court on Monday suspended a case regarding Spain's request to extradite self-exiled Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, pending a decision by the European Union Court of Justice, his legal team said.

An Italian court on Monday suspended a case regarding Spain's request to extradite self-exiled Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, pending a decision by the European Union Court of Justice, his legal team said. The decision is a blow to Spain's Supreme Court. It had requested his extradition to face sedition charges linked to Catalonia's 2017 failed independence bid.

Puigdemont, who also tweeted that the extradition procedure had been suspended, headed Catalonia's regional government at the time of a plebiscite on independence that Spanish courts say was illegal. "(I am) very happy", the 58-year-old said, in Italian, as he left the court in the city of Sassari, where a few dozen supporters gathered outside, waving Catalan and Sardinian flags and chanting "freedom" and "independence".

Italian police arrested Puigdemont on Sept. 23 after he flew into the island for a Catalan folklore festival. They were acting under a European arrest warrant issued by Spain, which has demanded Italy extradite Puigdemont.

A judge in the city of Sassari released Puigdemont less then 24 hours later and allowed him to leave Italy but set Monday's court hearing to decide on the legality of the warrant. Lawyers for Puigdemont, who has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2019, argued there were no grounds to arrest him and that he should be free until the European Union Court of Justice resolves their appeal on the parliament's decision to remove his immunity in March.

Lawyer Agostinangelo Marras told reporters outside the court building Puigdemont's extradition had been suspended and that he could move freely. Gonzalo Boye, Puigdemont's chief lawyer who was present at the hearing, tweeted "justice" in Italian shortly after the court's decision.

The European Union Court of Justice said on Friday it had received a new request from his lawyers to take "provisional measures" so Puigdemont can recover his immunity. It is not immediately clear how long any ruling will take. Puigdemont has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since late 2017 after Catalonia's parliament issued a short-lived independence declaration and the Spanish government took control of the regional government for seven months.

Spain's Supreme Court sentenced nine other Catalan separatist leaders to lengthy prison terms in 2019 for their role in the 2017 attempt to break away from Spain. They were pardoned in June.

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