FORMER Catalunya regional president Carles Puigdemont has been granted bail by a German judge and has now been freed.
The Territorial Court of Schleswig-Holstein, close to the Danish border where Puigdemont was arrested driving home to Belgium from Finland, says it would be 'unacceptable' to charge him with 'rebellion', but that the details of the European arrest warrant may be valid for charges of corruption and misuse of public funds under German law.
For this reason, the extradition order remains in place and the court will review it and make a decision whilst Puigdemont is free.
The court does not believe Puigdemont runs a risk of 'political persecution', which is his main argument for not returning to Spain, as he does not believe he would get a fair trial and could be facing up to 30 years in jail for organising the disputed independence referendum.
But it does consider he is a flight risk - largely because he has a rented house in Waterloo, Belgium, where he has been living since October when he left Spain along with four of his ministers - one of whom, Clara Ponsatí, is now in Scotland where she teaches at Edinburgh's St Andrew's University.
Puigdemont has been ordered to pay bail to the tune of €75,000, but 'for legal reasons', cannot be held on charges of 'rebellion' because the actions he is accused of would not be punishable by law in Germany.
Germany does have an offence of 'high treason' in its penal code, but violent behaviour is necessary for these charges to apply, and the court says this is not the case with Puigdemont.
Photograph by Puigdemont's party Junts per Catalunya ('Together for Catalunya', or JxCat)
