Spain lifts Puigdemont arrest warrant after court ruling

Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled on October 6 that the country’s 2024 amnesty law applies to embezzlement cases, prompting Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena to lift the national arrest warrant for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont. The decision removes an immediate obstacle to his return from Belgium, where he has lived since leaving Spain in 2017, but the amnesty has not yet been formally applied to his case. The Constitutional Court issued its ruling in an appeal by former Catalan minister Dolors Bassa, whose conviction for misuse of public funds had been excluded from the amnesty by the Supreme Court. The court rejected that interpretation, establishing that the law can cover embezzlement offences. Puigdemont faces an accusation of embezzlement linked to the use of public funds for the 2017 independence referendum. After the ruling, Llarena lifted the national arrest warrants for Puigdemont and, according to reports, former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig. His order is provisional, pending further judicial action.