It happened at the start of April in Germany and has happened again this Wednesday in Belgium: European justice has given a new and resounding slap to judge Pablo Llarena and to Spain's Supreme Court which has backed his investigation against the Catalan independence movement. Ministers Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig are again free citizens in a free country after the Belgian justice system discredited the investigation carried out by judge Llarena. There will be no extradition as the Supreme Court wanted and, beyond the senior Spanish judiciary closing ranks after the setback it's suffered, the Spanish state has been wounded in the most important legal proceedings Spain has faced in recent years.
With the Belgian legal battle over, the final result of the European arrest warrants is three to zero. Three more are still pending: president Carles Puigdemont's is at half time, after the charge of rebellion was rejected by the Schleswig-Holstein court and with it unlikely they will accept the charge of misuse of public funds, which the German court won't take long to rule on. In Scotland, minister Clara Ponsatí seems to have things going just as well, like in Switzerland with Esquerra's secretary general, Marta Rovira. There are, in total, six extradition orders and someone has to seriously consider what happens to Spanish justice if four countries question judge Llarena's positions. It shouldn't be so difficult to ask oneself whether it might be Spanish justice which is overstepping the mark before making comments like the one from the Supreme Court's Penal Chamber accusing Belgian justice of a "lack of commitment to offering the requested legal collaboration".
That the important decision from the Belgian court should have come the same day the Jordis, Sànchez and Cuixart, hit seven months (seven!) of imprisonment isn't a twist of fate. It's the macabre situation in which the nine political prisoners find themselves in the prisons of Estremera (Junqueras, Turull, Rull, Romeva and Forn), Soto del Real (Sànchez and Cuixart) and Alcalá Meco (Forcadell and Bassa). And which lays bare that the Spanish justice system is ready to sit them in the dock ignoring what's happening in other European countries. With the cruelty that implies and the injustice it carries with it.
We've said it more than once, identical cases cannot have different charges but that's what the nine prisoners in jails near Madrid are suffering. A new series of demonstrations this Wednesday evening in Catalan squares has demonstrated that Catalan society hasn't forget them, it remembers them. The exceptional situation of the new president of Catalonia going to visit those he considers "hostages" of the state on Friday will highlight an unheard of situation after the decision by the Belgian court. But the Spanish state appears willing to turn a blind eye.