Process Puigdemont against Spanish magistrate, started for Brussels right

The process that the marketed Catalan minister-president Carles Puigdemont with four ex-ministers has initiated against the Spanish investigating judge Pablo Llarena, on Tuesday, brought before the court of first instance of Brussels. A pleitdatum is not yet determined, that it will not be until the end of October.

Probably will be there only in February or march of 2019 called to be, for a room with three judges. These French-speaking chamber must now decide first, or immediately on the merits of the case can be argued to be, or that there first has to be decided whether the ministry of justice is competent for this file.

Carles Puigdemont, and the other four deposed ministers of the Catalan government, Meritxell Serret i Aleu, Antoni Comín i Oliveres, Clara Ponsatí i Obiols and Lluís Puig, blame, Llarena, that the European arrest warrant against them had been made, that he is biased.

Opinion

According to the lawyers of the five Catalan politicians has Llarena on February 22, in the cards look, when he was in Oviedo against the local press, said that the Catalan politicians who, in Spain, in the cell to sit, no political prisoners. That ruling was later by other Spanish media acquired.

‘That right has, therefore, outside the court his opinion on this matter to let it show, ” says master Christophe Marchand, one of the lawyers of the five Catalan politicians in Belgium, Germany and Scotland to stay.

Magistrate LLarena rejects so openly one of the arguments of the defence, namely that the fundamental rights of the Catalan politicians are infringed. Llarena’s bias would also be sufficiently apparent from its decisions in the dossier of the Catalan politicians.

Compensation

That way he commits according to the ex-members of the government are a mistake, and therefore have Puigdemont, and the four ex-minister decided to sue and a moral compensation of 1 euro to ask, according to the lawyers.

Master Hakim Boularbah occurs for the Spanish magistrate Llarena and the Spanish state, as intervening party to the process takes part. The parties dispute the jurisdiction of the Belgian courts.

The Spanish state intervenes to make its jurisdictional immunity and that of its investigating judge to defend, ” says master Boularbah. “We ask that the court now pronounces on the question as to whether they were competent, before the merits of the case to judge. The Spanish state is provisional only and therefore intervene, if they would accept that straight away about the merits of the case, the case, they would immediately her jurisdictional immunity up.’

Pleas

The lawyers of the Catalan ex-ministers wish that the court is right both about her power as it is about the merits of the case bends. The parties must make their arguments about them now, in writing, to the district court to make, by the end of October the node changes. Then will a date be determined for the briefs. Probably will in February or march to take place.