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Supreme Court investigating judge Pablo Llarena confirmed on October 19 2026 that arrest warrants against Carles Puigdemont Toni Comín and Lluís Puig no longer have legal force after the Constitutional Court ruled the amnesty law must apply to related embezzlement charges. Llarena who had previously opposed applying the amnesty to such cases stated that the warrants must be lifted immediately despite his disagreement with the higher court’s reasoning. According to Catalan News the judge instructed national police the Civil Guard regional Mossos d’Esquadra and all other authorities not to detain the three on the basis of those warrants while a full panel decides whether to close the case entirely.
Puigdemont fled to Belgium in late 2017 after Catalan authorities held an independence referendum that Spanish courts had ruled illegal prompting Madrid to dismiss the regional government and impose direct rule. Prosecutors accused the then president of rebellion sedition and embezzlement of public funds to finance the vote though he has consistently denied any wrongdoing. A Reuters report noted that the events of 2017 triggered Spain’s most serious political crisis in decades and left Puigdemont facing potential lengthy imprisonment if convicted on the original charges.
Parliament passed the amnesty law in 2024 as part of negotiations that secured Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a new term with support from Catalan separatist parties. The legislation covers offences linked to the independence push between 2011 and 2021 and has already been applied to more than 300 people according to the Catalan civil organisation Omnium. The European Union’s top court upheld the law’s compatibility with EU rules in a July 2026 decision while Spain’s Constitutional Court affirmed its constitutionality earlier this year before addressing its scope for embezzlement cases in the October 6 ruling that prompted Llarena’s latest order.
The Constitutional Court had accepted an appeal from former Catalan minister Dolors Bassa whose own conviction involved embezzlement and determined that excluding such charges when unconnected to personal enrichment would undermine the law’s purpose. Llarena acknowledged in his October 19 confirmation that executing the warrants in the interim could violate constitutional rights to liberty if the amnesty ultimately applies. A JURIST report from the same day detailed how the judge acted even before receiving the full Constitutional Court text to avoid any unjustified deprivation of freedom.
Speaking from his residence in Waterloo Belgium Puigdemont described the court decisions as a clear defeat for the Spanish state. He added in remarks reported by Politico that the ruling obliges us to put an end to political repression but stopped short of announcing an immediate return. His lawyer Gonzalo Boye told Catalan News that Puigdemont does not plan to come back before the November 29 snap general election while Comín is scheduled to return this week to collect European Parliament accreditation in Madrid.
The developments unfold as Spain prepares for the early national vote triggered by the collapse of housing legislation last month. The likely return of a prominent separatist figure could influence campaigning in Catalonia where support for independence remains divided. Reuters assessments have placed the number of individuals potentially covered by the amnesty at around 1,600 though only a fraction have received full pardons to date.
