Lawyer of officials in Brussels ‘hopeful’ extraditions will be rejected

The lawyer of the three deposed Catalan ministers in Brussels, Paul Bekaert, is “hopeful” that their extradition requests will be rejected by the Belgian judiciary. The lawyer says that the European arrest warrants are provisions to “pursue crimes, not for politics” and judges in Belgium want no “abuse” of such tools. In a debate held in Antwerp on Tuesday evening, Bekaert mentioned that “it is not normal for a country to issue the same European arrest warrant twice.”

The Spanish National Court issued one extradition request last November, but it was withdrawn in December. Yet, the Supreme Court then issued another one in March, which is now being evaluated by the Belgian judiciary. On May 16, deposed ministers Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig will be in court to give evidence on this issue.