Brussels will not extradite Lluís Puig

The Court of Appeal of Brussels dismisses the appeal lodged by the Belgian Prosecutor’s Office against the lower court ruling that rejected Pablo Llarena’s European Arrest Warrant against former minister Lluís Puig for the crime of embezzlement. The court considers, based on the reports of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, that the trial in Spain would violate Puig’s fundamental rights, on the one hand, because the Supreme Court lacks the jurisdiction to prosecute him and, on the other hand, because it would violate his right to the presumption of innocence. The Belgian prosecutor announces that they will not challenge the sentence.