The Council of Europe invited Monday June 21 Spain to give up
"the extradition procedures"
targeting
"Catalan political leaders"
exiled abroad, which refuses Madrid which has just announced the pardon of the nine separatists condemned for the 2017 secession attempt. In a resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the pan-European organization calls on the Spanish government to
"consider pardoning, or releasing in any other way"
, the Catalan politicians condemned for their participation
"in the organization of the unconstitutional referendum"
of 2017
"and of the large-scale peaceful demonstrations which the
accompanied ” .
Read also: Where is the crisis between Catalonia and Spain?
The text especially calls on Madrid to
"consider putting an end to the extradition procedures"
against the six
"Catalan politicians living abroad"
and
"wanted for the same reasons",
like the ex-Catalan regional president, Carles Puigdemont: exiled in Belgium since the 2017 secession attempt to escape legal prosecution in Spain, he risks 25 years in prison for rebellion.
Carles Puigdemont and the five other exiled Catalan officials are not concerned by the pardon granted to the nine separatists sentenced to prison for the 2017 secession attempt, a measure announced Monday by the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez whose government still wants the exiles be extradited to stand trial in Spain.
Read also: The Spanish government and the independentist Catalans on the path of dialogue
The text adopted by PACE further invites Madrid
“to start an open and constructive dialogue with all the political forces in Catalonia, including those opposed to independence, in order to strengthen the quality of Spanish democracy, and to find a compromise which will allow Spain (...) to settle political disputes (...) without recourse to criminal law, but with full respect for the
Spanish
»constitutional order
.
In a statement, the pro-independence executive of the Catalonia region welcomed this resolution, seeing it as a
"political victory"
.
"The Catalan government asks the central government to comply with the demands of the Council of Europe and to put an end to the repression, to release the prisoners and to allow the return of the exiles,"
the statement said.
Read also: Catalonia: Puigdemont's show of force in Perpignan
The Spanish Foreign Ministry judged him to be
"inconsistent in the recommendations calling on the executive to suspend ongoing legal proceedings and extraditions, which run counter to respect for the principle of the separation of powers"
.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/JNAMK37HFIZKML76SWBTDTD3QI.jpg)
