Spanish justice rejects amnesty for the pro-independence Puigdemont and maintains his arrest warrant

Spain's Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant amnesty to Catalan independence fighter Carles Puigdemont, who has been out of the country to evade justice since Catalonia's failed secession in 2017, and maintains the arrest warrant against him. 

The Supreme Court judge in charge of this case "has today issued an order in which he declares the amnesty not applicable to the crime of embezzlement" to former Catalan president Puigdemont and agrees to maintain "the national arrest warrants", the court said in a press release. 

This decision can be appealed within the next three days, the court explained. 

On 30 May, the Spanish parliament finally approved an amnesty law for Catalan pro-independence supporters prosecuted or convicted of various crimes for the 2017 independence attempt. 

It was the price paid by the Socialist President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to be re-elected in November, thanks to the support of the 14 deputies of the two Catalan pro-independence parties, who demanded this measure in return. 

The intention of the law was that arrest warrants would begin to be annulled, and that these annulments would be maintained while appeals were being resolved by higher courts, something that could take months or years. 

With more than 400 people indicted or convicted who could benefit, the wiping of the slate clean is expected to be laborious in the courts, which have to decide on a case-by-case basis. 

The most relevant of those potentially benefiting from the measure of grace was precisely Puigdemont, president of the Catalan regional executive during the events of 2017 and who has since been living between Belgium and France, evading Spanish justice. 

Puigdemont, under investigation for embezzlement, disobedience and for his role in the 2019 wave of riots and protests in the Catalan streets, had expressed confidence that the amnesty would allow him to return to Spain after seven years, but the Supreme Court's decision on Monday removes that possibility. 

Puigdemont is seeking to be re-invested as Catalan president after the elections in that region on 12 May, which were won by the Socialists, but with the need for complex pacts to govern.