A Brussels court has postponed until February the cases of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and two others sought in Spain on charges of rebellion and sedition, the Belga news agency reported yesterday.
 Puigdemont, a Catalan separatist, fled Spain following an outlawed October 2017 referendum on independence. He was detained briefly in Germany in 2018 before travelling to Belgium.
Madrid has issued European arrest warrants for Puigdemont, as well as fellow pro-independence politicians Antoni Comin and Luis Puig. All three are living in Belgium.
The Brussels court must decide whether to comply with the Spanish extradition requests for the men. The court decided to wait for a ruling on Thursday by the European Court of Justice relating to the case of another Catalan separatist leader, Oriol Junqueras, Belga reported. 
Junqueras was sentenced to 13 years in jail for his role in organising the 2017 referendum, but he has challenged the decision before the EU’s top court, arguing that he should enjoy immunity after being elected to the European Parliament in May.
Junqueras was prevented from taking up his EU seat after Spanish judges refused to let him leave prison to take a post-election oath to respect the Spanish constitution.  The Brussels court is now due to return to the cases of Puigdemont, Puig and Comin on February 3. The Belgian authorities did not comply with a 2018 attempt to extradite Puig, Comin and Puigdemont.
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