Carles Puigdemont arrested in Sardinia, in Sassari the hearing for the extradition of the Catalan leader

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was arrested late yesterday evening in Sardinia at Alghero airport.

The handcuffs were triggered on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities for crimes against order and public security.

After spending the night in the Bancali prison in Sassari, the independence leader is awaiting provisions from the judge: the Sassari Court of Appeal will decide on his possible extradition or his freedom. Hearing that should be held in the afternoon between 14 and 15. "Puigdemont is in the Sassari prison of Bancali - explains the lawyer Agostinangelo Marras - so the measures to be taken regardless of extradition or not will also have to be decided". The pro-independence leader "is fine, he is confident that the issue can be resolved as soon as possible and hopes to return to freedom soon," adds the lawyer.

In Alghero, the only Catalan city in Italy (ironically), Puigdemont had come to participate in an international event dedicated to Catalan culture and folklore, to meet some independence leaders and, among others, also the president of the Region Christian Solinas and the president of the regional council Michele Pais.

As soon as he landed in the Sardinian airport, the Catalan leader found numerous agents waiting for him who triggered the handcuffs and took him to the Bancali prison in Sassari.

A diplomatic case. In fact, Iberian diplomacy was activated by sending the honorary consul of Spain for the provinces of Sassari, Nuoro and Oristano, the Alghero lawyer Fabio Bruno, called to verify that Puigdemont is guaranteed compliance with international rules.

"We were contacted by the manager of the Alghero airport police office to inform us that Puigdemont's arrest was underway and we took steps to make sure that everything was regular," said the lawyer from Alghero. "Puigdemont - he added - has appointed a trusted lawyer and today I will go to hear him as a consular body".

In the late morning the government of Madrid released a note: "The arrest - it reads - took place in the context of an ongoing judicial proceeding and therefore, like all citizens, the current Catalan MEP must submit to the action of justice ".

THE PROTESTS - Protests everywhere, from Catalonia to Sardinia.   Hundreds gathered in front of the Italian consulate in Barcelona to demonstrate against the arrest, and protests are being organized in several other Catalonian countries.

The Italian consulate warned that it will remain closed to the public "for security reasons" as "demonstrations are scheduled throughout the day" near the Carrer Aribau 185 and Carrer Mallorca 270 offices. According to the Iberian media, there are several secessionist politicians , including the Catalan Vice President Jordi Puigneró.

The sensational arrest also generated the vibrant grievances of the variegated independence galaxy of Sardinia. The various associations that work to preserve the cultural identity of Alghero, the only Italian city of Catalan language and roots, gathered to demonstrate in front of the offices of the Sassari Court of Appeal.

The mayor Mario Conoci and some exponents of the Catalan government, such as the Foreign Minister Victoria Alsina, were also on site. And the thousands of Catalans expected in Alghero for the party in which the independence leader was also supposed to participate are pouring there to support Puigdemont.

Some separatists who gathered before the Court of Appeal condemn Italy for the arrest and point out how Puigdemont has been in France in recent days.

GABRIELLI - "There is a European arrest warrant, we are in the community and we must execute it", with these words Undersecretary Franco Gabrielli comments on the arrest of the former

Catalan president. And this, he stresses, does not change even in the face of the lack of arrest in France: "The French make the French and we make the Italians. Moreover, there has been this border control, it has been made available to the judicial authorities. a state of law

It is obvious that these are situations that perhaps after all we would never prefer to deal with, but we cannot even escape from it because in our country there is still a right ".

"I underline - adds Gabrielli - that even in this matter we are complying with the procedures of this country according to which, when there is a request for extradition, and the European arrest warrant has a greater significance, there is a judge who it is not only in Berlin but also in Sassari who will decide ".

FROM ESCAPE IN BRUSSELS TO ARREST - On 30 October 2017 Puigdemont flees to Brussels to escape the arrest warrant of the Madrid Public Prosecutor's Office, which accused the entire Catalan executive of rebellion following the referendum on 1 October 2017 on independence of Catalonia, repressed in blood by the then conservative government of Mariano Rajoy.

The former Catalan president refuses to return to his homeland to testify and the Spanish authorities issue a European arrest warrant which the Supreme Court withdraws a month later, allowing Puigdemont to travel but without authorizing his return to Spain.

New European arrest warrant in March 2018. Puigdemont is stopped in Germany as he attempts to return to Belgium from Finland. Berlin releases him but forbids him to leave the country, then in July a local German court refuses his extradition and withdraws all measures.

So Puigdemont returns to Belgium: on May 26, 2019 he is elected European parliamentary but cannot go to Madrid for official investiture in order not to be arrested. In fact, Madrid does not consider him an MEP and does not recognize his immunity instead recognized by the Strasbourg assembly on 2 June 2020.

In March 2021 the European Parliament votes to revoke his immunity, now the sensational arrest in Sardinia. The pardon granted by President Sanchez to all Catalan leaders arrested for the events of 2017 does not in fact apply to Puigdemont, because the former president of Catalonia immediately escaped justice.

Attorney Boye writes on Twitter that his client has been handcuffed under an arrest warrant that is in fact "suspended". The word now passes to the judges of the Sassari Court of Appeal.

(Unioneonline / L)