Puigdemont requests annulment of legal proceedings against him

The legal defense team of the former Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, has requested the Supreme Court to annul the legal proceedings against him led by the judge investigating the leaders of Catalonia's independence push, Pablo Llarena.

Puigdemont is being investigated for misuse of funds and disobedience related to the 2017 independence referendum deemed illegal by Spanish courts, and a hearing for the case was held on Thursday. 

Lawyer of the former Catalan president, Gonzalo Boye, argued that the Supreme Court had to abide by the legal reform brought in by the Spanish government which modified the crime of misuse of funds and eliminated sedition. 

Boye said in the hearing that "the only way to move forward" is to annul the prosecution order and to request to the European chamber permission to charge Puigdemont and fellow MEPs Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, as the Spanish penal code has been changed since the last time this happened, with the crime of sedition being removed. This, according to Boye, should mean that the whole process should be restarted. 

In March, in light of these changes to the criminal code, the Supreme Court upheld the charges of misuse of public funds and disobedience against Carles Puigdemont. With the decision, judges rejected the public prosecutor's request to charge him with aggravated public disorder, a more serious crime.

On the other hand, Vox, acting as private prosecutors in the case, also appealed Llarena's decision, demanding that the Supreme Court prosecute the former president for aggravated public disorder. 

The lawyer of the far-right party, Marta Castro, affirmed that the facts that were considered sedition in the original judgment of the case can be "subsumed" in this new crime of aggravted public disorder.