THREE Catalan MEPs could lose their parliamentary immunity from prosecution according to a report leaked to a right-wing Spanish newspaper.
Former president Carles Puigdemont and two of his ex-ministers, Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin, who are also in exile, appeared at a closed session of the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee last month to discuss their immunity in the face of a petition by Spain to have them extradited.
They are wanted there because of the part they played in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, which Spain declared illegal and which resulted in shocking scenes of police beating peaceful, would-be voters with batons and riot shields.
When they became MEPs they were automatically given the privilege of parliamentary immunity, and Spanish extradition attempts were frozen.
However, they would still face arrest should they try to enter Spain.
The legal committee – which has a large Spanish contingent – was chaired by Angel Dzhambazki, from the far-right Bulgarian nationalist party IMRO, who was also given the final immunity reports, despite rules that state each should have been left with its own person in charge.
Yesterday, Spanish daily newspaper ABC told how the committee’s report had proposed lifting the trio’s immunity.
Puigdemont said MEPs were not aware of the content of the report, which is due to be discussed next week, before being debated by the parliament next month.
He criticised the newspaper for assuming the parliament would simply accept it, tweeting: “The committee has not yet met and does not know the report of the speaker, but for Spanish nationalism this is an insignificant detail.”
Puigdemont’s legal team is now planning to present a formal complaint to European Parliament president David Sassoli concerning the leak.
Meanwhile, police across Spain were last night braced for further protests over the jailing of Catalan rapper Pablo Hasel for lyrics and tweets that insulted the monarchy and allegedly glorified terrorism.
READ MORE: What Scotland's independence movement can learn from the Catalan elections
The artist was arrested earlier this week after he barricaded himself in Lleida University, following the expiry of a deadline to surrender himself to authorities.
He and his supporters claimed his nine-month sentence for penning a song critical of former king Juan Carlos, along with tweets which judges said had glorified some of Spain’s now-extinct terrorist groups, violated his rights to free speech.
Peaceful demonstrations began late on Wednesday afternoon in the Catalan capital Barcelona and other cities, before spreading to other parts of Spain, including Madrid.
However, as the evening wore on they turned violent as rioters lit fires, set up barricades in streets and damaged shops.
Police in Barcelona and Madrid fired rubber bullets and charged at protestors with batons as they faced a barrage of objects and flaming rubbish bins. Around 50 people were arrested in the two cities and dozens of protesters, police and some bystanders caught up in the violence had to be treated by emergency medics.
Some of the most serious riots happened near the prison at Lleida, where Hasel was taken after his arrest on Tuesday.
His case has attracted a great deal of public attention, coming after a string of other artists and social media “personalities” faced trial for breaches of Spain’s 2015 public security law.
This was brought in by a previous conservative-led government and has been widely criticised by human rights organisations.
The Socialist coalition government led by prime minister Pedro Sanchez, has indicated it wants to change the criminal code to eliminate jail terms for offences involving freedom of speech, particularly when it is deemed to be artistic expression.
However, free speech is not a concept that comes easily to Spanish vice president Carmen Calvo, who said Hasel had been convicted under current legislation.
In an interview with radio network SER, she said: “Pablo Hasel has a whole history and … the rules of this country are being applied to him. The rules can be changed, [but] for now we must comply with everything.”
Calvo went on to condemn the violence during the protests and was critical of a spokesperson for her government’s coalition partner Podemos, who had expressed solidarity with the demonstrators.
She said: “It’s one thing to defend a democracy that is demanding freedom of speech and something very different to spur a situation ... where we saw wounded and detained.”
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