Judge Pablo Llarena has informed Germany that, to avoid what he says was an error of interpretation by Belgian authorities, Puigdemont's indictment is equivalent to an arrest warrant. As such, it fulfils the requirements of the European Arrest Warrant.
The judge wants to head off the problem he could face with Carles Puigdemont's extradition from Germany after, yesterday, a Belgian court refused to extradite ministers Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig for a technical error in the request.
After Puigdemont's German lawyer already submitted a petition this morning to overturn the arrest warrant, judge Llarena has been quick to insist that his application "fulfils the requirements".
In a letter addressed to the head prosecutor of the German court which has to rule on extraditing former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, Llarena explains the Brussels court yesterday refusing the extradition of three of the others in the same investigation, based on the argument that the European arrest warrant didn't mention a prior national counterpart and believing that Puigdemont's indictment isn't equivalent.
Llarena believes it goes against the principle of reciprocal trust to evaluate the legal nature of rulings set out by Spanish justice. The judge, to "avoid arguments which could lead to the same error", tells Germany that the indictment would be included as one of the legal rulings set out in article 8(1)(c) Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant, according to which, the "evidence of an enforceable judgement, an arrest warrant or any other enforceable judicial decision having the same effect, coming within the scope of Articles 1 and 2".
Llarena says that the indictment details the events and liability attributed to Puigdemont and was written at the end of the investigation phase, once the measure of detention without bail was decided. From that moment, in Spain, he writes, "this ruling is the executive ruling with respect to the provisional detention of Carles Puigdemont". According to Llarena's letter, Puigdemont would be immediately arrested and taken to prison if he were found in Spain or extradited.