DISINFO: Germany and Belgium called Spain to annul politically motivated sentences against Catalan leaders
SUMMARY
Parallels can be drawn between the EU calls to release Navalny and the politically motivated prison sentences against Catalan pro-independence leaders, which courts in Germany and Belgium called Spanish authorities to annul.
Spanish justice is so exemplary inside the EU that Belgium continues protecting Carles Puigdemont and refuses to extradite him, questioning – as the whole EU – the legitimacy of Spain’s Supreme Court.
RESPONSE
The affirmation is an attempt to deflect any criticism about the arrest and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the fierce crackdown on demonstrators who protested it.
The claim is not true. While courts in Germany and Belgium rejected the extradition of Catalan pro-independence leader and former regional president Carles Puigdemont to Spain in 2018, they did it for technical reasons. For the German court, the crime of rebellion of which Puigdemont is accused in Spain doesn’t exist in Germany, which renders extradition impossible, though the court considered possible to carry it out on charges of embezzlement if evidence was presented to judges.
The Belgian court considered that the Spanish authorities who issued the extradition warrant were not competent to do so, and that re-issued European warrants should have been backed up by new Spanish arrest warrants in order to be valid. A similar decision about former Catalan minister Lluis Puig was taken in 2020 by a Belgian court, which ruled that Puigdemont and other two Catalan pro-independence leaders are elected members of the European Parliament and as such enjoy immunity from prosecution. Spain has asked the parliament to strip them of this privilege, but a decision on this by their fellow MEPs has been delayed by the coronavirus crisis. At no point did any of those courts call Spanish authorities to “annul politically motivated sentences” against Catalan leaders, contrary to what Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov affirmed in his press conference, which was marred with false statements.
See other examples in our database, such as claims that Borrell’s mission was to publicly flog Russia; that he is not free to choose an independent political course; that EU diplomats took part in unsanctioned rallies and Russia’s patience has limits; and that Borrell knows that Navalny was not poisoned, but lies about it.