Lawyers welcome end to Spain’s pursuit of exiled leaders

“Sensible” and “logical” was how Carles Puigdemont’s lawyers in Germany reacted to the news that Spanish Supreme Court judge, Pablo Llarena, had decided to withdraw the European Arrest Warrants he had issued for the former Catalan president and five other political leaders seeking refuge abroad.

Puigdemont’s lawyer in Germany, Wolfgang Schomburg, said in a statement that from the outset he and his defense team had insisted that “political conflicts have to be resolved politically.” Schomburg added: “The decision is sensible. It is the logical consequence of our efforts in the past few weeks and months.”  

Another of Puigdemont’s lawyers, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, reacted by joking that he had been “left without a client.” The lawyer added that once the German court decided not to extradite Puigdemont for rebellion and only for misuse of public funds, he had suspected Llarena would drop the warrant rather than leave it to Germany’s Constitutional Court.