Scottish media backs Clara Ponsatí in fight against extradition

The block-capitals title on the front page read: “You can't have our Clara!” and sub-headings announced: “Huge support for Catalán professor released on bail;” “£185k in legal fees raised in just a few hours,” and, “Lesley Riddoch: Silence from the UK is deafening.”

Clara, 61, who was head of studies in the faculty of psychology and professor of economics and finance at Edinburgh's St Andrew's University until 2016, returned to her old job earlier in March after five months in Belgium, where she had fled with three other Catalunya regional ministers and its president Carles Puigdemont.

She had only been education minister for three months before she had to leave Spain to avoid arrest for her role in the disputed independence referendum.

The 'Belgium Five' from Catalunya are facing charges of sedition and, in some cases, misuse of public funds for the cash spent on holding the referendum – charges that could land them in prison for up to 30 years each.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, of the SNP, is on Clara's side and the former politician successfully crowdfunded the €40,000 she needed for her legal defence in a matter of hours – in fact, more than quadrupled the amount she initially appealed for.

Yesterday's (Thursday's) article titled, “Clara Ponsatí stays upbeat at Edinburgh Sheriff Court,” and was described as 'silver-haired, dark-jacketed and bespectacled' and 'looking for all the world like your granny or your auntie that [sic] you just wanted to hug.”

The reporter describes Clara as 'looking nervously' around the courtroom for 'friendly faces', and stated that there were 'plenty of them'.

“She took her place in the dock, and smiled. She does that a lot,” the report says.

Clara was granted bail on condition she handed in her passport to the court on Chambers Street, Edinburgh, which she immediately did.

According to the article, she will be required to appear in Court on April 12 and 18 to 'learn her ultimate fate' and find out whether she will be able to carry on living as an expat in Scotland and teaching economics at the prestigious university in the capital, or whether she will face 25 years in jail for 'violent rebellion' and another eight for 'misuse of public funds' in Spain – sentences that may run concurrently or even consecutively, which would mean that if she was jailed this year, she would be aged 94 before she saw freedom again.

The report says Clara Ponsatí 'is made of strong stuff' and that, although 'looks may be deceptive', she 'seems no more capable of violence and theft than she does of scoring for Barcelona against Real Madrid'.

It continues by drawing a comparison with Scotland's peaceful referendum – marked by the UK's pleas for it to stay in the country with its 'better together' campaign – and the police with riot shields and politicians facing prison sentences equivalent to those for murder in Catalunya.

“A lot of Scottish people have cottoned onto the fact that this woman, who has lived among us and taught our students for years, is now facing punishment for something we Scots took for granted – the right to decide our own future in a referendum,” the journalist observes.

The writer says 'people had come from all over Scotland to support' Dr Ponsatí during her arrest and subsequent court case, and quotes The National columnist and ex-MP for the Scottish National Party (SNP), George Kerevan, as saying: “Her fate is now in the hands of Scottish judges and there are real grounds for contesting this arrest warrant.

“None of the categories that are supposed to apply relate to political crimes.”

Demonstrators backing Clara say the arrest warrant 'appears to be political' rather than criminal, and say that they partly chose to turn out to support her because they 'need to be standing up to' politicians being 'locked up for their political views' as 'it could happen [in Scotland]'.

A Barcelona-born student at Edinburgh University is quoted as saying that it is 'so sad' that 'in Europe in 2018' politicians can be jailed because 'they were executing the will of peaceful people'.

Although he says he is 'happy' that Dr Ponsatí will probably be freed and allowed to carry on with her life, he laments the fact that deposed president Carles Puigdemont may end up spending most of his life in jail.

Puigdemont was arrested in Germany just after crossing the Danish border by car en route back to his rented home in Waterloo, Belgium, after giving a conference on the Catalunya situation at Helsinki University.

Whether or not the crimes he is charged with apply to Germany's penal code is not clear, but Germany has announced it will not contest Puigdemont's extradition.