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Ex-Catalan minister Clara Ponsati released on bail and allowed to keep passport

Clara Ponsati surrounded by supporters in Edinburgh - REX
Clara Ponsati surrounded by supporters in Edinburgh - REX

A former Catalan minister who is facing the threat of extradition to Spain has been released on bail after handing herself in to police.

Prof Clara Ponsati, an academic at St Andrews University, faces a charge of sedition over her role in Catalonia’s unsanctioned independence referendum in 2017.

She reported to a police station in Edinburgh on Thursday where she was formally arrested and served with a European arrest warrant issued by a Spanish judge.

She later appeared in the city’s sheriff court, where she was released and allowed to retain her passport.

The economist could face up to 15 years in jail if she is sent to her home country after nine other Catalan officials were given punitive sentences of between nine and 13 years last month.

Prof Ponsati, 62, the former education minister in Catalonia, is expected to face a full extradition hearing in the spring of next year.

clara ponsati - Credit: Lesley Martin/PA
The former Catalan minister with her lawyer Aamer Anwar Credit: Lesley Martin/PA

Her lawyer Aamer Anwar said the bid to extradite her was an abuse of the extradition process and an abuse of the European Arrest Warrant.

He added: "The crime of sedition is a 16th century offence that was created by kings and queens to stop a backlash from ordinary people that wanted their rights. Luckily in Scotland, sedition was abolished a long time ago.

"We will be fighting this on the basis of Clara's human rights being abused if she is returned back to Spain."

He claimed the warrant was full of “contradictions and mistakes”, adding that while it accused his client of “everything”, in reality it provided “no real examples of any alleged crime”.

Mr Anwar said: “Clara submits that she should not be extradited for a ‘show trial’ in the Supreme Court, where she believes the only verdict would be one of guilt. Clara views these charges as a ‘politically motivated prosecution’.”

barcelona - Credit: Josep Lago/AFP
Independence supporters in Barcelona this week Credit: Josep Lago/AFP

He added that his client’s fate lay in the hands of the Scottish justice system which she believed to be “impartial, robust and independent”.

The single charge of sedition, the act of inciting people to rebel against a government, relates to the independence referendum two years ago which the Spanish state deemed illegal.

The imprisonment of separatist leaders last month prompted major protests in Barcelona. More than 600 people were injured and nearly 200 arrests were made.

Prof Ponsati was made director of the school of economics and finance at St Andrews University in 2016, before becoming a Catalan minister the following year.

She returned to Scotland last year after fleeing Spain with Carles Puigdemont, the deposed Catalan president.