The lawyers of exiled Catalan ministers Mertixell Serret, Toni Comín and Lluís Puig have contacted the public prosecution service in Brussels today to put their clients at the disposal of Belgian justice, in accordance with the requirements of European arrest warrants issued by Spanish judge Pablo Llarena.
Meanwhile, a fourth exiled Catalan minister, Clara Ponsatí, will turn herself in to justice in Scotland this week, her lawyer has said.
In the case of the three in Belgium, prosecutors state that "there is no manifest risk of them fleeing" and for this reason, have neither called the Catalan leaders to appear, for the time being, nor placed any control on their movements.
Although they have not currently been cited to present themselves to Belgian justice, it is not ruled out that they will be called to do so in the next few days or weeks.
The Belgium prosecution service issued a statement on Monday afternoon, immediately upon knowing that Carles Puigdemont had appeared before the court in Germany and that he was awaiting the judge's decision. The statement confirmed that Serret, Comín and Puig will maintain the same status as currently.
Moreover, the prosecutors have asked for "additional information from the Spanish judicial authorities through the Eurojust agency" in order to have more information on the case, but have not specified the type of information they have asked for.
The Belgian service also clarified that this European arrest warrant has nothing to do with the warrant they received in November 2017 and that, therefore, the procedure starts from zero.
Ponsatí will hand herself over in Scotland
Clara Ponsatí will put herself at the disposal of British justice this week, as her lawyer Aamer Anwar communicated this Monday.
Lawyer Anwar has said that the Catalan education minister will turn herself in to the Scottish Police this week and that she expects to appeal against the arrest warrant for her extradition to Spain.
Ponsatí works as a teacher at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, to which she returned this month after going into Belgian exile from Spain along with the other Catalan politicians. As Anwar said in a communiqué, the Catalan politician will appeal against her extradition, which represents "a systematic attempt to criminalize the desire for independence", a reality that was reflected in the referendum of 1st October last year, declared illegal by Spanish justice.
The lawyer has informed that he has received instructions to resist the extradition request "vigorously" and that the Catalan minister will turn herself over to the police voluntarily this week, before appearing in an Edinburgh court. "I can confirm that I have received instructions to defend Clara Ponsatí in the case of Spain's extradition request", the lawyer stated in his communiqué. "I have instructions to oppose the extradition on the basis that this is political persecution", he specified.