File photo of Carles Puigdemont, October 14, 2019./ Reuters
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Tuesday provisionally restored the parliamentary immunity of Catalan pro-independence MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Antoni Comin, and Clara Ponsati, the Catalan News agency reported.
Puigdemont was the Catalan leader who organized a 2017 independence referendum deemed illegal by a Spanish court.
He, along with Comin and Ponsati, fled to Belgium to avoid arrest. All three have been the subject of European arrest warrants issued by Spain. In March, the European Parliament rescinded immunity for Puigdemont and two other pro-independent MEPs, a decision that was upheld in July by the EU’s General Court.
Puigdemont recovered parliamentary privileges in June but lost them again in July in a provisional decision that made his defense team believe the arrest warrants against him were suspended.