EU court rejects bid to restore immunity of Catalan separatist MEPs

The EU General Court upheld the waiver of immunity on Catalonian independence leader Carles Puigdemont on Friday, a court press release stated.

The vice president of the the second highest EU court, Savvas Papasavvas, rejected a request to have Puigdemont's immunity as a member of the European Parliament reinstated, along with those of fellow EU lawmakers and Catalan separatists Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati.

Spanish authorities are seeking to put the Catalan separatist leader, who lives in Belgium, on trial for sedition for his role in an illegal independence referendum held in Catalonia in October 2017.

Puigdemont was arrested in Italy in September on the basis of Spain's 2019 extradition request, but was released after just one day, pending the outcome of a European Court of Justice ruling on the Spanish judiciary's request.

Puigdemont, who has ridiculed Spain's attempts to extradite him, and has accused Madrid of abusing the legal system to persecute its political enemies, then applied to the lower EU court to suspend the lifting of his immunity.

Request 'not urgent'

Papasavvas rejected the request for a temporary injunction to that effect on the grounds that it was not urgent, according to the press release. This is not yet a final ruling, however.

The execution of the European arrest warrant was in any case suspended until the European Court of Justice ruled on fundamental questions relating to the Spanish Supreme Court's arrest warrant, concluded Papasavvas in the statement. There was therefore no need for a temporary injunction.

The European Parliament withdrew the lawmakers' immunity at Spain's request earlier this year.