Thread by @AamerAnwar

1/17 statement - ‘This morning our legal team appeared at court on @ClaraPonsati’s behalf & it was agreed that she should be discharged as a requested person & these extradition court proceedings are now finally at an end in Scotland’🎗

2/17 On each & every occasion, that @ClaraPonsati & the Catalan exiles have taken on the might of the Spanish state they have won, whilst Spain has failed to crush the spirit of the Catalan People

3/17 In March 2018 @ClaraPonsati first appeared before the Scottish courts following Spain issuing a European Arrest Warrant, relating to her involvement in the peaceful independence referendum of 2017.

4/17 The warrant signed by Judge Pablo Llarena of the Spanish Supreme Court charged @ClaraPonsati with the crime of sedition. Sedition is an archaic offence invented in 16th century Courts of Europe, by Kings and Queens who feared a backlash from the slow march to democracy,

5/17 from before a time when the human right of political expression became an accepted basic human right.  In democracies today it is accepted that freedom of political speech is a core value of democratic legal systems, without it the rule of law cannot be maintained.

6/17 @ClaraPonsati had stated that if anyone should be put on trial, then it was the Spanish state for unleashing an orgy of violence on the Catalan people, for its assaults on the right to vote, the right to protest and on the fundamental human right to self-determination.

7/17 For Clara the European Arrest Warrant was always an example of ‘judically motivated’ revenge by Spain.She maintained that there could be noguarantee of a right to a fair trial after ‘show trials’ of 9 Catalan politicians imprisoned for 100 years between them & now pardoned.

8/17 A true democracy guarantees the absolute freedom of expression & politicians must be able to speak freely, independently & without fear of any form of prosecution or punishment

9/17 Yet Spain stood accused of politically motivated prosecutions, driven by vengeance and a total contempt and lack of respect for international law and human rights.

10/17 The Scottish court process has now been running for over three years and in November 2019 it was agreed that Clara’s passport should be returned to her, allowing her to travel

11/17 After becoming an MEP, Clara took up her role in Brussels on the 1st February 2020, where she now lives and works.

12/17 On the 30th July 2021 the VPresident of General Court of the European Court based in Luxembourg ruled on the waiver of immunity by the European Parliament for the three Catalan MEPs, @ClaraPonsati @KRLS & @toni_comin the case is still to be heard European Court of Justice.

13/17 The immunity of article 9.2 of the Protocol of Immunities has NOT been lifted according to the Luxembourg court, they retain parliamentary protection to allow them to come and go to sessions of the European Parliament in Strasbourg

14/17 General Court also confirmed that the European Arrest Warrants should be suspended due to the referral of the case to the European Court of Justice, but Spain failed to suspend the warrants by failing to inform the executing authorities of the suspension of the Warrants.

15/17 Given that Clara Ponsati retains her parliamentary protection that allows her to come and go to sessions of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and lives and works as an MEP in Belgium, Clara has not returned to Scotland.

16/17 No rational argument has been presented by Spain which justifies the criminalisation of its citizens, who wish to peacefully argue for a different form of Government or simply the right to self-determination, recognised in terms of Charter of the United Nations

17/17 In conclusion, Clara wishes to thank the many people in Scotland as well as those across Europe, who have given her so much love, support and solidarity through difficult times and hopes that one day she can return from political exile to her beloved Catalonia🎗