German prosecution calls for Puigdemont's extradition

They have also called for him to be remanded in custody, considering him a flight risk.

Catalunya's pro-independence parties say they are 'confident' the German judge will block Puigdemont's extradition to Spain on the grounds he would not receive a fair trial, and Puigdemont's legal advisors intend to fight his forced return.

They claim he is not likely to jump bail, since after fleeing to Belgium following the referendum, he presented himself at the police station in Brussels as soon as he knew of a European arrest warrant issued against him.

This was withdrawn, but a new warrant was issued when Puigdemont was in Finland giving a conference on the Catalunya situation at Helsinki University, and he duly went to the police.

Puigdemont was released and started to make his way home to his rented house in Waterloo, Belgium, by car, but was stopped in Germany just over the Danish border.

According to the German prosecution: “The accusation of rebellion contemplates, essentially, the holding of an unconstitutional referendum despite the fact it was to be expected that violent confrontations would occur.”

Following the protests between members of the public and the Guardia Civil on September 20 last year – just 11 days before the referendum – which turned violent, Germany's prosecution service believes it was foreseeable that day of the vote would bring fresh riots, and yet Puigdemont chose to go ahead with it anyway against warnings by State police, committing regional police to guaranteeing that those who wished to vote could do so.

Germany's penal code does not include the offence of 'rebellion', but does include that of 'high treason', which the prosecution considers covers the charges Spain wants to levy against Puigdemont.

“It is not a legal requirement for there to be a literal coincidence between the German and Spanish texts,” the prosecution says.

The offence of misuse of public funds does indeed exist in Germany, and Puigdemont is charged with this for carrying out an 'illegal' referendum which, inevitably, involved a financial cost, being funded from the regional government's coffers.

As for Puigdemont's being a flight risk, this is because the prosecution does not believe it can guarantee he would stay in Germany whilst the Territorial Court of Schleswig-Holstein decides on his extradition, if he were to be granted bail.

A very different scenario has been met by Puigdemont's former education minister Clara Ponsatí, who fled to Belgium at the same time but has since moved to Edinburgh to go back to her old job as professor of economics and finance and head of studies in the faculty of psychology at St Andrew's University.

She has been granted bail and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has pledged full support for her, whilst members of the public back her in full.

They say Scotland was allowed a peaceful referendum to 'decide its own future', but that when Dr Ponsatí helped organise one in Catalunya, she was opening herself up to a prison sentence of up to 33 years.