Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will not leave Belgium despite the European Arrest Warrants against him and his fellow ministers also in the country being withdrawn today, according to the Belgian lawyer who had been leading his defence, Paul Bekaert. "Puigdemont will not leave Belgium after the withdrawal of the European Arrest Warrant. Only one arrest warrant of the three has been withdrawn", the lawyer told Belgian newspaper L'Echo.
Puigdemont's lawyer said this morning that he hadn't yet received "official notification" of the removal of the European Arrest Warrants. "We have no official decision, we've not seen any notification. Whilst we don't have these documents, we won't react," he said.
Llarena's decision
This morning, a judge from Spain's Supreme Court, Pablo Llarena, withdrew the European Arrest Warrant against the president and the four ministers in Belgium: Toni Comín, Lluís Puig, Meritxell Serret i Clara Ponsatí. The judge also withdrew the international arrest warrant. The decision is important and unprecedented: never before had a judge cancelled an arrest warrant once issued.
This ends the play through the Belgian justice system. The aim is that the president and ministers will return to Spain of their own free will, at which point they will be arrested (the national warrant has not been revoked) and the judge can start on a process akin to that followed with their colleagues who remained behind.