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A Catalan protester calls for Carles Puigdemont's release
Photo: Joan Mateu / dpa
Former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont is free.
The politician was arrested in Sardinia on Thursday evening.
The competent court has now overturned this measure, as Puigdemont's lawyer Gonzalo Boye told SPIEGEL.
Puigdemont was heard by the court in Sardinia on Friday.
Judge Plinia Azzena stressed, according to Spanish media reports, that Puigdemont's arrest was legal.
However, it is not necessary to keep him in prison or to impose house arrest.
"I'm fine," Puigdemont told reporters after leaving prison.
It has not yet been decided whether the Italian judiciary will transfer Puigdemont to Spain.
Spanish media initially reported that the politician had assured the judge that he would remain in Sardinia until the decision.
Captured immediately after landing
However, lawyer Boye told SPIEGEL that this was not the case.
The court did not impose any conditions on him.
Puigdemont will therefore remain in Sardinia for a few days and then return to Belgium.
A decision on a possible extradition to Spain should be made on October 4th, Boye continued.
Boye said he did not know whether Puigdemont would appear in person for the hearing or testify via video conference.
However, he is absolutely certain that his client will ultimately not be extradited.
Puigdemont was caught on Thursday evening immediately after landing in Sardinia.
He had traveled to the island to attend Catalan celebrations and meet local politicians.
He was arrested by the Italian police at the airport in the city of Alghero and taken to prison.
The basis for this is a European arrest warrant against the politician issued by Spain's Supreme Court in 2019.
The Spanish judiciary accuses him and other separatists of rebellion against state power and embezzlement of public funds over the illegal independence referendum in Catalonia on October 1, 2017 and the attempted secession of the region.
Puigdemont has been on the run since then - unlike some of his colleagues.
Most recently he lived in Waterloo near Brussels.
The Spanish judiciary has tried several times in vain to extradite him.
Puigdemont's lawyers optimistic
The fact that Puigdemont's defenders are so optimistic has above all to do with Puigdemont's election to the European Parliament.
As a member of the European Parliament, Puigdemont generally enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution.
Parliament overturned this in March by majority vote.
But the politician is taking legal action against it - and the Court of Justice of the European Union has not yet made a final decision on the case.
So far, the judges only decided that Puigdemont's immunity should not be restored for the time being - according to the judgment, among other things, because, in the opinion of the court, there was no danger of the European arrest warrant being executed against him.
Spain has assured that, it says in the ruling.
But now that is exactly what has happened.
Puigdemont's defense lawyers have therefore already announced that they will apply to the ECJ for the reinstatement of immunity.
"We'll do that on Monday," Boye told SPIEGEL.
In the court ruling it was expressly stated that in the event of arrest a new application for an interim order to restore parliamentary immunity could be filed.
Demonstration in Barcelona
On Friday, isolated supporters of the separatists demonstrated in front of the Italian consulate in Barcelona.
The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez demanded in the afternoon that Puigdemont should face the Spanish judiciary.
At the same time he emphasized his willingness to enter into a dialogue with the Catalan independence advocates.
Sánchez had recently started direct negotiations with the separatists in Barcelona in order to calm the conflict over the region.
The arrest has now made his project more difficult.
Puigdemont belongs to the conservative, more radical separatist camp.
Even the left regional president Pere Aragonès, with whom Sánchez wanted to negotiate, immediately stood behind Puigdemont after his arrest and demanded his release and an amnesty.
Sánchez's left minority government is supported by Catalan separatists, among others.
The conservative opposition promptly called on the Spanish head of government to do everything possible to extradite Puigdemont - even if that could endanger his government.
In Spain it was suspected on Thursday evening that Puigdemont had deliberately provoked his arrest in order to draw attention to his concerns again.
"I can assure you that that is not the case," says his lawyer Boye now.
The arrest was not expected.
Puigdemont appeared publicly in France a few days ago, and he was not bothered there either.
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