Spain’s European arrest warrant for Catalan Independence leader in Scotland must be quashed

Supporters cheer majority referendum verdict in favour of Catalonia Independence from Spain

Supporters cheer majority referendum verdict in favour of Catalonia Independence from Spain

Commenting today on the news that Catalan Independence politician Clara Ponsati is preparing to hand herself in to Polis Scotland on the issue of a European arrest warrant from Spain, Mark R Whittet (LLB, BA), Leader of Scotland’s Independence Referendum Party said;

 “This shocking abuse of democratic process of the European arrest warrant system by Spain is intolerable and should be resisted by Scotland’s courts and government.

 “Can we imagine the British government handing over Sergei Skripal to Moscow on a European arrest warrant if Russia was part of the EU? Or London handing over the war-time Polish government-in-exile in London to the Nazis?

 “This move by Spain is a sinister ploy to circumvent the democratically-expressed vote in favour of Catalonian Independence – and let us not forget Spain is a ‘fellow-EU’ nation that was prompted by the British Government in the Scottish Independence referendum to groundlessly claim that Scotland could not be an independent member of the European Union.

 “Cynically, the best SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon can hope for here is that Clara Ponsati seeks political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in Edinburgh – like the Wikileaks whistle-blower Julian Assange – and takes the European arrest warrant out of her in-box.

 “Surely there is a way to declare this European arrest warrant invalid on the grounds that ‘political oppression of a leader of a bona fide political party’ cannot be just – never mind legal.”

See also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43539208

Lawyer Karen Todner, who has worked on many high-profile extradition cases, told BBC Scotland today (26/03/18):

“Sedition is not a criminal offence and you have to show dual criminality so if extradition takes place it has to be an offence both in the requesting state and in the requested state i.e. Scotland.

“And the second ground is that there is a bar of extradition for extraneous considerations one of which is that the request for extradition is improperly motivated and that means that it’s politically motivated and if this can be shown to be a politically motivated request for an extradition warrant then she could defeat the application for extradition.”

Scotland’s Independence Referendum Party

 The primary goal – and number one objective in the constitution of Scotland’s Independence Referendum Party –  is to achieve political Independence for Scotland.

We aim to do so by helping to bring about a new/ second Scottish Independence Referendum in light of the entirely-changed political and constitutional landscape following the UK Brexit vote.

We shall do this by providing a meaningful, valid, SECOND choice/ chance to vote for Independence-supporting MSPs in elections to the next Scottish Parliament; ie SNP party members/ voters can vote ‘first’ choice for SNP on the ballot paper, and then vote ‘second’ choice for Scotland’s Independence Referendum Party on the ballot paper.

This gives two choices/ chances/ votes in favour of Scotland’s Independence (instead of the present 1/ SNP – and reduces the ‘stray’/ use-less ‘second’ vote going to any other British Unionist party.

Despite the use of the word ‘Scottish’ in front of their names, the Liberals, Tories and Labour are all single, British Unionist parties and are all controlled from, and based in, their London head offices.

Scotland’s Independence Referendum Party is not competing with the SNP; rather, we want to work in a progressive alliance with them.

Categories: News.