German judiciary deliberates extradition of former Catalan leader to Spain

BERLIN - Judicial authorities in the state of Schleswig-Holstein are still deliberating over the potential extradition of Spain's former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, Deputy chief public prosecutor Ralph Doepper told press on Monday.

A district court must first confirm the identity of the 55-year-old former Catalan leader. According to Doepper, it was still unclear whether Puigdemont would be held in police custody during the legal assessment of the Spanish extradition request.

The arrest happened shortly after he had crossed from Denmark into Germany en-route to Belgium in a car, after having participated in a conference in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

Puigdemont has been in exile in Belgium since leaving Spain on Oct 29, 2017 in order to avoid facing charges of sedition and rebellion.

Earlier, Spain had issued a wave of European arrest warrants against individuals who are accused of illegally declaring Catalonian independence and deposed Puigdemont of his office in the culmination of a still ongoing constitutional crisis.

Although German authorities have so far only fulfilled an obligation under international law by responding to the European arrest warrant, the latest development in the Catalan independence struggle has nonetheless sent shockwaves across the continent and places Berlin in an awkward position.

More than 50,000 demonstrators clashed with Spanish police in Barcelona, demanding that Berlin release Puigdemont rather than extraditing him. At least 90 individuals were injured, including 20 security officers who fired warning shots in an attempt to disperse the angry crowds.

Among others, Puigdemont stands accused by prosecutors of "rebellion", a criminal offense under Spanish law which carries a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

According to Doepper, Germany's state prosecution office of Schleswig-Holstein would now have to wait until Spanish authorities provided documents detailing the rationale for his extradition.

Ultimately, however, it was the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig-Holstein which would reach a verdict. German media initially reported that Puigdemont was considering applying for political asylum in Germany, a claim denied by his attorney on Monday.

The newly-installed justice minister Katarina Barley (SPD) has so far refused to provide any comment on the politics of the situation in Spain and instead merely referred to the adherence of legal protocol.

"The first steps are purely judicial ones and we will have to wait until they are completed for now," Barley told the public broadcaster "ARD". The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Elmar Brok was less cautions in his wording, blasting Puigdemont for having "obviously broken Spanish law" and having "acted in contradiction of the constitution" in the newspaper "Osnabruecker Zeitung" on Monday.

"He would be well advised to end the situation peacefully," Brok added. The MEP further said that the Catalan desire for self-determination was "hopeless" and instead recommended Madrid and Barcelona to focus on renegotiations of the Catalonian province's autonomy statute.

By contrast, the Left party (Linke) demanded that Puigdemont be released immediately. "Dialogue is the order of the day," Left party parliamentary faction leader Dietmar Bartsch told press. The Left party's Europe spokesperson Andrej Hunko described the arrest of Puigdemont as a "disgrace" and "obviously politically-motivated."

The Free Democratic Party (FDP) foreign policy spokesperson Alexander Graf Lambsdorff demanded an urgent statement by the federal government on the situation. "From a legal perspective there was nothing improper about Puigdemont's arrest, but politically it creates big problems," Lambsdorff told the newspaper "Augsburger Allgemeine" on Monday.