The lawyer for former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsatí, Aamer Anwar, has said this Tuesday that he is considering calling ministers from Mariano Rajoy's Spanish government to the court in Edinburgh during her extradition hearing, to begin 30th July.
Anwar had already said on Monday that, in recent weeks, they'd worked to identify experts from academia, to practitioners, political commentators, constitutional law experts and non-governmental organisations and are preparing a list of "very respectable individuals" to go to Scotland to give evidence. This Tuesday, he confirmed this list could include former cabinet ministers.
Ponsatí's lawyer said that the aim would be to get members of Rajoy's cabinet, which was ousted on 1st July with a no-confidence vote against the prime minister, to expand on public statements they have made. "We're instructed to consider citing to our court ex-ministers from Rajoy's regime to expand on their controversial comments that fall within the ambit of victimisation and political persecution," said Anwar.
In comments to the media after a preliminary hearing today, Anwar said that prosecutors have "had since March to confirm what crime would have been committed in the law of Scotland and this has yet to be clarified". Before considering an extradition warrant, a court has to find equivalents in local legislation for the charges in the order, in this case rebellion. This requirement is avoided for a specific list of serious crimes with the European Arrest Warrant, but Anwar said that Crown prosecutors have accepted that rebellion doesn't fit under the suggested match on the list of corruption.