A former judge from Spain's Supreme Court, José Antonio Martín Pallín, from Galicia, has told the program Tot es mou on Catalan public broadcaster TV3 that Spain would have to let president Carles Puigdemont travel to Madrid to collect his formal certificate of election from the Central Electoral Commission.
Pallín noted that the MEPs have to collect their certificates of election from the commission, but believes it shouldn't be taken as the literal moment they take office "because it would be frivolous". "The logical thing would be for Puigdemont to take possession [of his seat] and for the immunity mechanisms for parliamentarians to be put in place". "I believe Puigdemont should be allowed to [appear before the commission] and that any measure against him should be suspended until the European Parliament takes a decision," he continued. In his opinion, if the European Parliament considered the matter it would base its deliberations on the rulings in the case by courts in Germany and Belgium.
The judge argued that parliament has to be supreme over all legal action. He added that the prisoners who were elected to the Congress in last month's general election, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sànchez, Josep Rull and Jordi Turull, should be released from prison. He believes that their imprisonment is "worrying and dangerous", even more so now they are deputies.