Spanish prosecutor requests new European arrest warrant against leaders in Belgium

The Spanish prosecution is not willing to give up trying to extradite the three Catalan leaders in Brussels. Barely a day after extradition requests were rejected in Belgium, Spain's prosecutor’s office requested the Spanish Supreme Court again issue a European arrest warrant against Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret, and Lluís Puig. A court in the EU capital denied the Spanish petition due to “irregularities” and “procedural defects.” There was no national arrest warrant issued in Spain, an element deemed mandatory for an EU arrest warrant to be taken into consideration.

The prosecutor’s office argues that there have been “discrepancies of a formal nature” between the Spanish and the Belgian courts. That is why it has asked the Madrid judges overseeing the independence judicial case to make a new decree clarifying that an order of imprisonment has been issued for all officials abroad.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Supreme Court asked Germany not to commit the "same mistake" as Belgium. In a letter, judge Pablo Llarena told the German prosecutor that the Belgian court's decision went "against the principle of mutual trust" between judiciaries. The Spanish judge admitted he felt compelled to write to the German authorities  in order "to avoid circumstances that could prompt" what he deemed as "the same mistake" seen in Belgium.