Arrest warrant issued for protester convicted over Madrid demonstration against jailing of Catalan leaders

Madrid Provincial Court issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for Dani Gallardo, a protester sentenced to four and a half years in prison in 2020. 

Gallardo was convicted for his role in demonstrations in Madrid after the Spanish Supreme Court issued prison sentences to Catalan pro-independence leaders for organizing an independence referendum in 2017. 

The Madrid court had given Gallardo one week to voluntarily present himself to prison, but issued an arrest warrant after he failed to appear. 

"The person concerned has not appeared on any of the three occasions on which he has been summoned, nor has he been located at his registered address, which has resulted in this legal order," the court said in a statement. 

The 26-year-old unsuccessfully requested that his detention be suspended due to the drafting of the amnesty law, from which he would likely benefit, sources in Gallardo's defense told El País newspaper. 

Gallardo spent more than a year in preventive detention in 2019 and 2020. After being tried, he was sentenced to one year in prison for public disorder and a further three years and six months for assaulting a police officer and causing minor injury.