Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, arrested in Italy at Spain’s request over an independence referendum that Madrid ruled illegal, is released while he fights extradition
A judge in Sardinia has ordered Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont released from jail ahead of an Italian court decision on Spain’s extradition request.
“All good,” Puigdemont told reporters after leaving the prison on Friday.
The judge ruled that Puigdemont is even free to travel ahead of an October 4 extradition hearing.
Puigdemont’s Italian lawyer Agostinoangelo Marras told reporters outside the courthouse in Sassari, Sardinia, that when the judge asked Puigdemont if he wanted to be returned to Spain, his client replied “no.”
Marras said a three-judge panel would take up the extradition request and decide “in a very short time.”
Meanwhile, according to the judge’s decision, Puigdemont must remain in Sardinia pending the outcome of the extradition request.
Puigdemont was taken into custody on Thursday night when he arrived at an airport in Alghero, Sardinia.
He had been invited to attend a Catalan cultural event as well as a meeting, a few days later, of Sardinian independence sympathisers on the Mediterranean island.
The 58-year-old is wanted by Madrid on charges of sedition over his attempts to lead a Catalan breakaway from Spain in October 2017.
While serving as the region’s president in 2016-2017, Puigdemont pushed for secession from Spain.
He currently holds a seat in the European Union’s parliament, although that legislature stripped him of parliamentary immunity.
Source: (TRT WORLD)
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