OMM Newsroom
Carles Puigdemont can return to Spain without being arrested after a Supreme Court judge confirmed on Monday that arrest warrants against him had been withdrawn, nearly nine years after he left the country following a failed independence bid. Anadolu Agency reported.
Judge Pablo Llarena upheld his Oct. 6 decision to lift the warrants for Puigdemont and former Catalan Cabinet ministers Antoni Comin and Lluis Puig, rejecting an appeal by the far-right Vox party.
Llarena said a recent Constitutional Court ruling meant Spain’s amnesty law could apply to their cases. He stressed, however, that his decision concerned only the arrest warrants and did not mean Puigdemont had formally been granted amnesty.
The Supreme Court’s criminal chamber must make a final decision on whether to dismiss the criminal proceedings against him.
The ruling followed a Constitutional Court decision in favor of former Catalan Labor Minister Dolors Bassa. The court rejected the Supreme Court’s interpretation of whether embezzlement linked to the 2017 independence referendum was excluded from Spain’s amnesty law.
Llarena acknowledged that the Constitutional Court’s interpretation was binding, although he criticized its reasoning and defended the Supreme Court’s previous position.
Puigdemont led Catalonia’s regional government during its 2017 independence referendum and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence. He fled to Belgium that October to avoid prosecution and has remained abroad since.
He briefly returned to Barcelona in August 2024 to address supporters, then left again without being arrested.
Spain’s parliament approved the amnesty law in 2024 after an agreement between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party and Puigdemont’s Junts party. Junts’ support in parliament helped Sanchez secure another term after the 2023 general election.
The Supreme Court had previously refused to apply the amnesty to Puigdemont’s embezzlement charge, arguing that the alleged misuse of public funds involved a personal financial benefit. The Constitutional Court later rejected that interpretation, opening the way for the amnesty to apply to his case.
Last week, Puigdemont asked the Supreme Court to apply the amnesty law without further delay and definitively close the proceedings against him.
He did not publicly comment on Monday’s ruling. Spanish media cited sources as saying he intends to return only if he has formally been granted amnesty.
The ruling also comes amid political uncertainty in Spain after Sanchez called an early general election for Nov. 29.
