Puigdemont to travel to Geneva

Carles Puigdemont is going to be travelling, again. This time, his destination this time is Geneva, where on Sunday evening he will take part in a debate over self-determination, during the International film festival and forum on human rights in the Swiss Francophone city. According to the organization, the former Swiss president Micheline Calmy-Rey will also take part, among others. The debate will take place immediately after the festival shows a French documentary on the Catalan crisis called ‘Catalogne, l’Espagne au bord de la crise de nerfs’ (Catalonia, Spain on the verge of a nervous breakdown).

Puigdemont has been in Brussels for four and a half months, following the declaration of independence and Spain’s takeover on October 27, 2017. Since he moved to Belgium, this is his second trip abroad, after traveling to Copenhagen for two days in January. It's unlikely that the Spanish justice reactivate an international arrest warrant on him, as Spain’s prosecutor stated a few days ago that it would not request such measure for the investigated leaders until the latter are prosecuted.

The Spanish Supreme Court, investigating the independence case, issued a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont and his deposed ministers in Belgium when they moved. Yet in December, the judge withdrew it after the Belgian prosecutor did not accept all the crimes they were charged with in the arrest warrant.

Far-left former MP in Geneva

The deposed Catalan president will travel to Geneva on Sunday, where former MP for the far-left CUP party, Anna Gabriel, has been since mid-February. She is also currently investigated in the same case. By relocating to the Alpine country, she chose to not attend a hearing at the Supreme Court in Madrid, on the grounds that she “would not have received a fair trial.”