Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will spend Easter in a northern German prison – and possibly much longer – as courts there decide how to act on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. The court ordered that Puigdemont be held in custody for the length of extradition proceedings, prosecutors said. They do not fall under the obligatory grounds for a European arrest warrant (EWA) handover, meaning they must decide if there are legal equivalents in Germany. In Berlin, the federal government said it would not get involved in the court case – for now at least. But MEP Elmar Brok, of Dr Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said Mr Puigdemont “clearly broke Spanish law and breached the constitution”.

Source: The Irish Times March 26, 2018 19:18 UTC