In a ruling, Judge Pablo Llarena decided to withdraw the warrant as the five “appear to have shown their intention to return to Spain” to take part in regional elections on December 21.
But Llarena, who is in charge of the case, has retained the Spanish arrest warrant, which means they will be detained upon arrival in the country, sources said.
The judge said the European warrant would complicate the overall probe into the region’s leaders.
Some of them are still in Spain – either in jail or out on bail – and are facing charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
He said that Belgium could reject some of the reasons for the warrant, meaning it could agree to the extradition of Puigdemont and the four others – but with restrictions, and only for certain offences.
This in turn would stop Spain from investigating the restricted offences, thereby creating inequalities with those already held in Spain who would be probed on the full charges, Llarena argued.
It is unclear what charges would have posed a problem, but there has been controversy in Spain over the offence of rebellion, which carries up to 30 years in jail and has been criticised as “disproportionate” by some critics in the legal world.
Llarena also said that he had dropped all other “international” warrants, without giving further details.
The unexpected decision comes a day after Puigdemont and his colleagues attended an extradition hearing in Brussels, with the Belgian judge due to give a decision on December 14.
Jaume Alonso Cuevillas, one of Puigdemont’s lawyers, told Catalonia’s TV3 channel that he was pleasantly surprised.
“This means yesterday’s hearing went much better than we thought,” he said. “It pushed Spain’s judicial authorities to withdraw the European warrant to avoid getting a slap from Belgian judicial authorities.”
Paul Bekaert, another of his lawyers, told Belgium’s L’Echo daily that the Catalan leader would “not leave Belgium”.
The decision also comes after the Catalan election campaign kicked off, with Puigdemont speaking to supporters in Catalonia on Monday night via video link.
The Madrid authorities “want to raise as many difficulties as possible so we can’t campaign on an equal footing with the other candidates”, he told a party rally in Barcelona.
Madrid called the new elections after the independence declaration on October 27, while dismissing Catalonia’s government and suspending the region’s autonomy.
‘Junts per Catalonia’ (All for Catalonia) candidates for the upcoming Catalan regional election – former Catalan government spokesperson Jordi Turull (left) and former Catalan government Territory and
Sustainability chief Josep Rull – take part in a press conference yesterday in Barcelona. Spain has withdrawn a European arrest warrant for Catalonia’s sacked leader Carles Puigdemont and four of his former ministers, who fled to Belgium after the regional parliament declared unilateral independence.
