Spain Lifts Decade-Old Arrest Warrant Against Catalan Separatist Puigdemont

MADRID — Spain has rescinded the outstanding arrest warrant issued against Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, allowing the politician to return home without fear of detention for the first time in nearly ten years.

Puigdemont departed for Belgium in 2017 following his unsuccessful attempt to lead an illegal secession bid for Catalonia, Spain’s northeastern region.

Judge Pablo Llarena revoked the warrant on Tuesday shortly after Spain’s Constitutional Court declared it would extend a government amnesty for Catalan separatists to one of Puigdemont’s allies who had already been convicted of misusing public funds.

Llarena explained he was suspending the arrest warrant while awaiting the chance to review the Constitutional Court’s ruling, which he indicated would likely render the warrant obsolete.

Puigdemont’s Catalan party, Junts, stated he would hold a press conference later on Tuesday from Waterloo, where he currently lives as a self-declared exile.

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