Exiled Catalan minister Clara Ponsatí believes she could be arrested "any day soon". That is what the former Catalan education minister, currently exiled in Scotland, has said in an interview with Scottish newspaper The Courier, in which she expressed her support for the Catalan political prisoners, most of them her former political colleagues, and her concern about the likelihood of a new warrant for her arrest.
From her office at Saint Andrew's University, Ponsatí spoke about the recently-concluded Spanish trial of the 12 pro-independence leaders, which she referred to as "dramatic". She told The Courier that the way the trial was conducted, and the fact that the defendants were kept in jail for two years beforehand, meant that the severity of the jail sentences (9-13 years) was expected. However, she said, "it's still shocking."
With Spanish justice now having issued a new European arrest warrant for the exiled Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, Ponsatí expects the same fate: "I am expecting another order of arrest any day now,” she said, “because that is what Spain said they would do after the sentences were published."
Ponsatí speculates that her arrest warrant may not have been activated yet because Spanish justice might be "waiting to see what Belgium does with president Puigdemont." At least, the academic explains in the interview that "she has learned to live with the sort of stress” she’s now experiencing.
Confidence in Scottish justice
"I totally trust European justice," said Ponsatí, asserting that when another arrest warrant is issued she will hand herself over to the Scottish police.
Because she is clear that the prosecution of the independence leaders "is politically motivated by Spain," she believes that "any fair judge will see it in the same way", and thus, Ponsatí hopes that she will not be extradited.