Catalonia wants out; Spain says no

It is impossible to indicate the length of proceedings before the Court. The Court endeavours to deal with cases within three years after they are brought, but the examination of some cases can take longer and some can be processed more rapidly.

Amanda Knox has been waiting four years now.

"introduite le 24 novembre 2013"
Google Translate says:
"introduced on 24 November 2013"

Chamber
Length of proceedings cases following
delay in payment of “Pinto”
compensation
Around 2,000 cases are pending before the
Court where applicants are complaining
about one or both aspects related to length
and issues linked to the Pinto procedure.
[...]
Amanda Marie Knox v. Italy
(no. 76577/13)
Case communicated to the parties in April 2016
[...]

Catalan pro-independence parties are launching a third bid to elect a regional president hours before their latest candidate appears before a judge over his part in the push for secession.

MPs will meet at 5pm on Thursday for a hastily convened investiture debate that could result in the election of Jordi Turull, former chief of staff to Carles Puigdemont, the deposed Catalan president.

On Friday morning, Turull is due to attend the supreme court where he and five other separatist leaders will learn what exact charges they face over last year’s unilateral referendum and subsequent declaration of independence.

Turull and the others, who face rebellion charges that carry a maximum 30-year sentence, could be remanded in custody. If charged, Puigdemont’s former aide could be barred from holding office.

Catalonia has been under direct rule from Madrid since the end of October, when Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, responded to the unilateral independence declaration by sacking Puigdemont and his government and calling snap elections that where held in December.

The three Catalan pro-independence parties retained their majority but have struggled to elect a president. Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium five months ago and faces immediate arrest should he return to Spain, had hoped to reassume office but abandoned his campaign after a court ruled he would have to attend an investiture debate in person.

Puigdemont anointed Jordi Sànchez, a prominent independence leader and MP from his Together for Catalonia party, as the new candidate. But Spain’s supreme court ruled that Sànchez, who has been in custody since October, could not leave prison to be invested.

On Wednesday, Sànchez withdrew his candidacy and gave up his seat in parliament, saying it was “the best service I can now do for my country”.

Turull described his nomination as “an immense honour”, adding: “If parliament gives me its confidence, I will work ceaselessly for the progress and protection of 7.5 million Catalans, their rights, their freedom and their democratic mandates.”

However, to be elected, he will need the support of the small, anti-capitalist Popular Unity candidacy (CUP), which is pushing for the swift resumption of the independence process.

After the 2015 elections, the CUP refused to support Puigdemont’s predecessor, Artur Mas, arguing he was too mired in corruption allegations. Mas stepped aside, clearing the way for Puigdemont’s presidency.

CUP MPs will meet two hours before the investiture debate to decide whether to back Turull, who was fiercely loyal to Mas.

Roger Torrent, the pro-independence speaker of the Catalan parliament, said he had moved to call the debate so quickly because of the Spanish authorities’ “meddling in our parliament in recent days and weeks”.

The Spanish government, which has repeatedly warned Catalan MPs to choose a “clean candidate”, accused Torrent of damaging the dignity of the regional parliament. It has also warned it could maintain control of Catalonia’s institutions until there is a new government that “abides by the law”.

MADRID — The Latest on Spain’s confrontation with Catalan separatists (all times local):

12:35 p.m.

Catalonia’s fugitive ex-president says he has not spoken to the latest separatist lawmaker to flee Spain.

Speaking at a press conference at the University of Helsinki on Friday, Carles Puigdemont denied discussing exile with Marta Rovira, who defied a summons to appear in Spanish court hours earlier.

Still, Puigdemont says he fully supports her decision to do so.

Puigdemont, who is himself in self-imposed exile in Belgium, also criticized a Spanish judge’s decision to charge him and other 12 Catalan separatists with rebellion on Friday.

“It is not right for a judge to do politics,” the former leader said just moments after the court ruling.

Puigdemont’s comments come one day after the pro-independence majority of Catalonia’s parliament failed to elect a regional president.

Crowds of protesters in Spain's Catalonia region have clashed with police after the Supreme Court stepped up legal action against separatists.

Spain's Supreme Court ruled 25 Catalan leaders should be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state.

Convictions could result in up to 30 years in prison.

More than 20 people were injured as police used riot batons to keep protesters away from federal buildings in Barcelona on Friday night.

Demonstrations also took place in other parts of Catalonia.

In Madrid, a Supreme Court judge ordered five more Catalan leaders to be detained without bail, pending trial over their involvement in October's banned independence referendum.

One of those taken into custody was Jordi Turull who was to be the subject of a vote in the Catalan parliament on Saturday for regional president.

Other separatist figures were already in custody or had gone into exile abroad.

Helsinki (dpa) - During the visit to Finland by former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, Spain applied for his arrest. The Finnish police reported that the warrant had been forwarded to a public prosecutor, but at the same time more information had been requested from Spain. Puidgemont currently lives in Belgium to avoid arrest by the Spanish judiciary. The 55-year-old was invited to the Finnish Parliament on Thursday and gave a lecture at the University of Helsinki yesterday.

The political conflict between Catalonia and Spain has been reignited, after 13 Catalan leaders were arrested. The ex-Catalan premier was almost detained in Finland, when authorities accepted Spain's warrant against him.

Police authorities in Finland said on Saturday that they would fulfill the European arrest warrant issued by Spain against Carles Puigdemont, but the ex Catalan leader managed to return to Belgium before he could be detained, Finnish MP Mikko Karna confirmed.

Puigdemont had covered 808 miles (1,300km) of the 1,243-mile car journey from Helsinki to Brussels when he was stopped at 11.19am, apparently at a petrol station near Schuby on the A7 motorway, 31 miles into German territory, according to his lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas.

According to German media reports, the arrest was made following a tip-off from Spain’s intelligence agency to German federal police’s Sirene bureau, part of a network of information-sharing units for national police in the Schengen area.
[...]
uigdemont was transferred to Neumünster prison in northern Schlewig-Holstein on Sunday afternoon. Citing “rumours within judicial circles”, the local newspaper Kieler Nachrichten reported that Puigdemont was considering applying for asylum in Germany. The paper added that the chances of an asylum application overriding the European arrest warrant were relatively slim.

According to the rules of the warrant, Germany has up to 60 days to decide whether to extradite him to Spain. If Puigdemont surrenders to be prosecuted, the decision must be made within 10 days.

The international warrant, originally issued in November, was rescinded in December amid Spanish concerns that Belgium would not extradite Puigdemont for the more serious charges against him as they are not on the Belgian statute books.
[...]
Germany can extradite suspects only if the alleged offence is also punishable under German law. There is no such crime as rebellion under German law, but there is a crime of high treason, defined as using force or the threat of force to undermine the constitutional order.

The Catalan unilateral declaration of independence was entirely peaceful, if unlawful, although Spanish authorities may argue there was an implicit threat of force. The crime of sedition was dropped from German law in the 1970s.

Arrest warrants were also reactivated on Friday for Lluís Puig, Meritxell Serret and Toni Comín, who are all in Belgium, and Clara Ponsatí, who is in Scotland teaching at the University of St Andrews. Authorities in Scotland confirmed they had received the warrant, and Ponsatí was said to be negotiating to turn herself in to police.

Warrants were also issued for the arrest of Marta Rovira, the secretary general of the secessionist Republican Left party, and Anna Gabriel, of the radical Popular Unity Candidacy, both of whom have sought refuge in Switzerland.