News / EU

Puigdemont vows to never surrender, keep up fighting: Lawyer

Tuesday, 27 March 2018 4:43 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 27 March 2018 6:21 PM ]

Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas (L) and Gonzalo Boye, lawyers of former Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont, speak to journalists as they leave the prison of Neumuenster, northern Germany, where Puigdemont is detained, March 27, 2018. (AFP photo)

A lawyer of Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan leader who has been arrested in Germany over a European warrant, says his client has no intention of giving up his struggle for the independence of Catalonia from Spain.

Attorney Gonzalo Boye said on Tuesday that Puigdemont had conveyed a message to the Catalan people from Germany, where he is in custody, that he would “never surrender” in the face of pressure on him to give up his push for independence of the northeastern Spanish region.

Boye said Puigdemont wanted to “pass the message” to the Catalan people that “he will continue fighting and this is going to be a long fight but it will be a fight that he will” win.

“He has said we will never surrender and that is his message to the Catalan people and also that they have the right to express their willingness for independence and a republic in Catalonia,” said the lawyer after visiting Puigdemont in jail following his arrest on Sunday in the German town of Neumunster.

The photo, taken on March 18, 2018, shows Catalonia's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont gesturing during an interview on the sidelines of the International film festival and forum of the human rights (FIFDH) in Geneva. (AFP photo)

Boye said Puigdemont had no objection to a German prosecutor’s decision to have him in custody pending a ruling on Spain's bid to have him extradited. “... he has expressed his full trust in the German legal system,” said Boye.

Puigdemont went on the run after Spain launched a sweeping crackdown in October to block his declaration of independence for Catalonia, which came after a controversial referendum earlier that month. He has mostly been based in Belgium and has managed to get re-elected in snap regional elections which took place in December. Madrid wants him, along four former cabinet members, over charges of sedition and rebellion. A court has normally 60 days to rule on extradition based on a European arrest warrant.

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