{"id":12323,"date":"2017-12-04T10:25:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T10:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=12323"},"modified":"2017-12-04T10:25:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T10:25:48","slug":"catalan-separatist-leader-puigdemont-faces-belgian-extradition-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/catalan-separatist-leader-puigdemont-faces-belgian-extradition-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Catalan separatist leader Puigdemont faces Belgian extradition hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Axed Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont faces an extradition hearing in Belgium on Monday as Spain seeks to have him sent back to face sedition charges over his region\u2019s independence drive.<\/p>\n

A judge sitting behind closed doors in Brussels will hear from lawyers for Puigdemont and four of his former ministers, who all fled to Belgium in October despite a summons to appear in court in Spain, claiming they would not get a fair trial.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors last month asked the judge to approve the European arrest warrant issued by Madrid for the five in the opening round of what could become a protracted courtroom battle.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s hearing comes on the eve of the official start of campaigning for December 21 elections in Catalonia, ordered by Madrid to \u201crestore normality\u201d to the wealthy northeastern region, which declared independence unilaterally following a hotly disputed October 1 referendum.<\/p>\n

Puigdemont\u2019s lawyer said at the weekend he will remain in Belgium until after the elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, they will be (in Brussels) till at least December 21 and according to my calculations this could go on till mid-January,\u201d lawyer Jaume Alonso Cuevillas told Catalan radio Rac1, referring to Puigdemont and the four former ministers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lawyers of axed Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, including Christophe Marchand (C-R), talk to the press at the Palace of Justice in Brussels on November 17, 2017. (Photo by AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spanish prosecutors want to prosecute Puigdemont and his former ministers for rebellion — which carries a maximum 30-year jail sentence — and sedition for holding the referendum, which was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the courts, as well as for misusing public funds.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile a Spanish Supreme Court judge is set to decide whether or not to free 10 other separatist leaders who were jailed pending a probe into their role in the Catalan independence drive.<\/p>\n

Any release on bail would mark a turn in the election campaign, particularly for separatist parties who have repeatedly accused Madrid of taking \u201cpolitical prisoners\u201d and \u201crepression\u201d after their attempt to declare unilateral independence fell flat.<\/p>\n

Puigdemont and his cadres say the charges against them are politically motivated and as both sides are likely to appeal if the judge rules against them in the extradition hearing, the case could drag on for months, according to the Belgian justice minister.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s hearing the court is expected to make its ruling in eight to 10 days, according to the Brussels prosecutor’s office.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Puigdemont said Friday he would \u201crespect the schedule\u201d of the Belgian legal process.<\/p>\n

(Source: AFP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Axed Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont faces an extradition hearing in Belgium on Monday as Spain seeks to have him sent back to face sedition charges over his region\u2019s independence drive. A judge sitting behind closed doors in Brussels will hear from lawyers for Puigdemont and four of his former ministers, who all fled to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-islamic-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12325,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323\/revisions\/12325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}