(CN) — Carles Puigdemont, a popular Catalan politician who fled to Brussels after spearheading an illegal independence referendum, faces arrest by Spanish authorities after a European Union court ruled Wednesday that he is not protected by political immunity.
The General Court rebuffed Puigdemont's claim that he should be shielded from prosecution in Spain because he is a member of the European Parliament. Puigdemont said he would appeal the decision to the EU's highest court, the Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
In 2017, Puigdemont was the president of Catalonia's regional government when he approved holding a highly contentious referendum on Catalan independence in defiance of Spanish authorities.
After Spanish authorities brutally cracked down on the referendum and independence movement, Puigdemont and other Catalan politicians fled the country, fearing imprisonment.
Since then, Spanish courts have battled to get him returned to Spain to face prosecution for allegations of insurgency and misuse of public funds in connection to the illegal referendum.
Wednesday's ruling leaves him and two other exiled European Parliament members from Catalonia vulnerable to new warrants for their arrest. The other two EU parliamentarians are Antoni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, both of whom played prominent political roles in the Catalan secessionist movement.
Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí all won seats in the European Parliament after EU elections in 2019, even though they were in exile.
After fleeing Spain and becoming members of the Brussels parliament, the trio have been in a long-running legal fight over whether they should face extradition to Spain.
The European Parliament rebuffed their immunity claims in March 2021, and the General Court on Wednesday upheld the parliament's decision to waive their immunity.
By March 2021, several Catalan politicians and activists who did not flee Spain stood convicted for their roles in the secessionist movement. Three months later, though, they were pardoned by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Puigdemont tweeted Wednesday that “we will defend our fundamental rights to the end” and warned that EU institutions were attacking “political dissent.”
“Political minorities who defend causes that inconvenience governments will have, if this sentence is not reversed, more difficulties in exercising their rights,” he said.
An appeal to the EU's high court must be made within two months.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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