The Parliament had approved in November a reform of the penal code aimed at deleting the crime of sedition.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
While at the end of November a reform of the penal code repeated this crime in the country, the Spanish supreme court officially abandoned the sedition charges chosen against independence Carles Puigdemont, former president of Catalonia, Thursday, January 12 .
Exiled in Belgium to avoid prosecution in Spain, Mr. Puigdemont must still answer accusations of disobedience and embezzlement, which are liable to eight -year imprisonment. Sedition was liable to a maximum imprisonment of fifteen years.
The previous attempts of Spain to have the former president of Catalonia extradite during his stays in Germany, Belgium and Italy failed. The judge of the Spanish supreme court Pablo Llarena said Thursday that he would submit a new extradition to the Belgian authorities so that Carles Puigdemont was tried on the basis of less serious charges, depending on the decisions of the European courts on his Immunity.
mitigate the conflict between Madrid and Catalonia
Spain modified its penal code at the end of last year to remove the historic sedition law, under which certain separatist political leaders have been sentenced to sentences going up to thirteen years in prison , after the constitutional crisis caused in 2017 by the referendum on the independence of Catalonia and the unilateral proclamation of the Catalan Republic.
The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who then pardoned persons sentenced following these events, said that this measure should further alleviate the political conflict between Madrid and Catalonia. The opposition parties declared that this measure was aimed at guaranteeing the coalition led by the socialists of Pedro Sanchez the continuous support of the independence parties during controversial parliamentary votes.
Carles Puigdemont, who has exiled to Belgium since the end of 2017, has been a member of the European Parliament since 2019.