On Thursday, the Scottish judiciary closed the extradition process for Catalan independent and European Parliament member Clara Ponsati, accused of “sedition” in Spain, considering that she is no longer competent due to her move to Belgium.
“The court has no jurisdiction in this case,” Judge Nigel Ross said, ending several years of litigation in Scotland in the case related to the Catalan parliament, which was implicated in the 2017 Catalan secession bid.
The judge explained that Clara Bonsati, 64, had notified the Scottish justice, now living in Belgium, in May, after being elected to the European Parliament, and thus, It will not be possible to deliver it from Scotland to Spain.
Former Minister of Education in the Catalan government, Clara Ponsatti is accused of “sedition” by Spain after it participated in the unilateral declaration of Catalonia’s independence in 2017. An economics professor at the Scottish University of St. Andrews, Ponsatti has been subjected to an extradition process examined by Scottish justice.
However, the Catalan has held a seat in the European Parliament since 1 February 2020, after the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (EU), with 27 of the 73 British seats reorganized for EU member states. Mass.
At the end of the court hearing, during Thursday’s hearing, European Parliament lawyer Amer Anwar said, “The court has already anticipated that Clara Ponsati is no longer under Scottish jurisdiction (…) and this extradition has finally ended.”
However, Clara Bonsati continues to ask Spain to extradite her. In March, the European Parliament voted to lift his immunity, as those of Catalan separatists Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comin. For the last two, the extradition request is already in the hands of the Belgian courts.
Catalonia’s secession bid has unleashed a deep political crisis in Spain, which the new coalition government headed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promised to try to resolve through negotiations.
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