Belgian legal expert says judge could refuse to extradite Puigdemont

Free University of Brussels law professor argues that accepting European arrest warrants between member states is “not automatic”

 

Anne Weyembergh, the president of the Institute for European Studies of the Free University of Brussels (by Alan Ruiz Terol)
Anne Weyembergh, the president of the Institute for European Studies of the Free University of Brussels (by Alan Ruiz Terol) / ACN

ACN | Brussels

November 16, 2017 06:09 PM

There are grounds for the Belgian judge to reject the European extradition warrant issued against Carles Puigdemont. This is according to the president of the Institute for European Studies of the Free University of Brussels, Anne Weyembergh. The law professor told ACN that the Belgian authorities could reject the warrant on the basis that there is a “serious risk of infringing human rights” if the dismissed Catalan president and the four former ministers with him in exile in Brussels are handed over to the Spanish authorities.

Processing the European arrest warrant is not “automatic” says Weyembergh, who points out that “the Belgian judge can decide to refuse”, especially if it can be argued that extradition poses a threat to human rights. The law professor also says that accepting the extradition warrant will be based on how much mutual trust there is between the two states, and the expert stressed that whatever decision the court makes will be entirely “legal and not political”.

Weyembergh also pointed out that to accept the order, the Belgian authorities will have to check that the requirement of double criminality is fulfilled in the warrant for Puigdemont and his former ministers, Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret, Lluís Puig and Clara Ponsatí. "There is a problem here because while the Belgian penal code includes the offenses of sedition and rebellion, their definitions are not the same as in Spain," she said.

Different definitions of sedition and rebellion

The legal expert explained that the European arrest warrant is a mechanism to simplify the extradition process between EU member states. Thus, for 32 offenses the conventional requirement of double criminality - in which the offense is considered criminal in both states - does not apply. However, sedition and rebellion, the offenses on which Puigdemont’s extradition is based, are not on this list, meaning that in this case the principle of double criminality applies. Puigdemont’s Belgian lawyer, Paul Bekaert, has already said he intends to challenge the extradition on this basis.