Exiled minister’s lawyer calls actions of Spanish judiciary ‘unacceptable’

Aamer Anwar accuses Spain of “changing the rules of the game” but trusts Scottish court will reject Ponsatí’s extradition

Clara Ponsatí's lawyer Aamer Anwar (by Laura Pous)
Clara Ponsatí's lawyer Aamer Anwar (by Laura Pous) / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

May 15, 2018 01:56 PM

Aamer Anwar, the lawyer defending sacked minister Clara Ponsatí from an extradition order in Scotland, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that Spain is making “desperate attempts” to project a “different image” internationally by trying to convince its European partners that everything in Catalonia has been resolved—yet Anwar stresses that "it hasn't."

"Can they say to their European colleagues, while they have political prisoners in a European prison, that is business as usual and that everything is solved? It's not!" he insisted.

The lawyer claims that the Spanish authorities are making "an abuse of the European Arrest Warrants” in trying to extradite Catalan officials abroad, and he accused the Spanish judiciary of “changing the rules of the game” to ensure the officials are returned to Spain. "The Spanish authorities keep shifting the goalposts. They can’t keep trying once, and then twice and then three and four times,” he said, calling such behavior “unacceptable.”