After the Spanish central government declared the Catalan government deposed in October 2017 without sufficient factual basis in Spanish law, in blatant breach of organic law of the Spanish state and in massive violation of human rights established as mandatory law for Spain in international covenants of the United Nations, some of the members of the government ousted by this coup d'état and politically persecuted by Spain, among them the Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, exercised their right as citizens of the European Union to reside in any country of the European Union under the freedom of movement and moved their permanent residences first to Belgium and the United Kingdom. There, they were always available to the judiciary in accordance with the legal standards applicable in Europe. At no point were they 'fugitives' from justice.
Anyone who nevertheless publicly repeats the Spanish lie that the Catalans 'fled from justice' will have to face the accusation of unjustified defamation and deliberate lying, since it is clear and recognisable to everyone that this was and is not the case. No citizen of the European Union is forced to change his residence within the Union and to go to a country of the European Union where he is legally persecuted for political reasons. It is sufficient, in the first instance, to be available to the justice system of the country in which one is permanently resident. The Catalans persecuted by Spain for political reasons have, without exception, always surrendered of their own free will to Belgian and Scottish courts. The last-instance ruling of the competent Belgian court in the case of the Catalan exile minister Puig of 7 January 2021 alone is a huge legal slap in the face for the Spanish judiciary and the Spanish state and should in itself trigger the initiation of European Union proceedings against Spain.
In several cases, there are now final judgments of European courts prohibiting the extradition of Catalan politicians on charges of 'sedition' to Spain, which had issued European arrest warrants to that effect. These are thus closed proceedings in the area of European justice. The proceedings regarding the accusation of misuse of public funds against the Catalan president in exile Puigdemont are also considered closed, since Spain at the time had waived extradition by Germany (before a final legal clarification as to whether this would have taken place at all) and had withdrawn the European arrest warrant issued at the time. Insofar as Spanish judges ignore this and continue to issue European arrest warrants for the same charges, which have already been finally clarified in other proceedings, they violate the legal principle ne bis in idem of (not only) European law and thus misuse the instrument of European arrest warrants. Only recently, the European Court of Justice delivered an unequivocal judgment in Case C-665/20 PPU X, which can always be used as a precedent by Catalans persecuted for political reasons by the Spanish judiciary.
«ECJ, No. 73/2021 : 29 April 2021.
Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-665/20 PPU.
X (Mandat d'arrêt européen — Ne bis in idem).
Area of freedom, security and justice
The Court clarifies the scope of the ne bis in idem principle, which applies to the execution of a European arrest warrant for acts which have already been the subject of a previous conviction in a third country.»
Although a Belgian court had ruled in the last instance that a Catalan minister in exile politically persecuted by Spain would not expect a fair trial in Spain, and this was and is evidently also true for the three Catalan MEPs whose immunity was to be lifted at Spain's request, the MEPs, among them German MEPs oblivious to history who do not seem to have learned any lessons from German history, which includes the Third Reich's decisive contribution to the persecution of the Catalans in Spain, nevertheless voted on 9 March 2021 in favour of lifting the immunity of Catalan exile President Carles Puigdemont and his two ministers Prof. Dr. Clara Ponsatí and Toni Comín.
At the request of the three Catalans, the European Court of Justice — probably for the first time in such a case — overturned this decision of the European Parliament on 2 June 2021 and provisionally restored the parliamentary immunity of the three Catalan MEPs. This is a unique case in the European Court of Justice's jurisprudence to date. Olet enim toto in orbe terrarum fumus huius persecutionis!
«ECJ No 91/2021 : 2 June 2021.
Order of the Court of First Instance in Case T-272/21 R
Puigdemont i Casamajó and Others v Parliament
Le vice-président du Tribunal de l'Union européenne suspend provisoirement la levée de l'immunité parlementaire de MM. Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó et Antoni Comín i Oliveres ainsi que de Mme Clara Ponsatí i Obiols.»
[«The Vice-President of the General Court of the European Union has provisionally suspended the waiver of the parliamentary immunity of Mr Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó, Mr Antoni Comín i Oliveres and Ms Clara Ponsatí i Obiols.»].
The ECJ issued a press release in French and Castilian to this effect.
It may be shocking that in Germany in particular the longstanding persecution and oppression of the Catalan people, the crimes against humanity committed by Spain under Franco against the Catalan people in the Catalan lands under Spanish rule (Balearic Islands, Catalonia and the land of València), and Spain's massive violations of both collective human rights of the Catalan people and individual human rights of many Catalans since 2017 are largely simply ignored. What right does Germany have to raise its voice in defence and protection of human rights in other states when it itself, with cynical double standards, simply ignores the most massive human rights violations in Western Europe in decades? The (provisional) decision of the ECJ to restore the immunity of the three MEPs persecuted by Spain on political grounds shames all those MEPs who bowed to Spain's demand at the cost of essential democratic and constitutional principles and voted for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of their three Catalan colleagues.
In the midst of Europe, there are political prisoners, including an elected Member of the European Parliament, Oriol Junqueras, who was imprisoned by Spain despite having immunity, and over three thousand EU citizens who are being prosecuted and harmed by a member state of the European Union for political reasons! And Europe remains silent and looks away! Poor Europe! Those who remain silent agree.