Llarena now recognises that Puigdemont and Comín are MEPs and asks for the waiver of parliamentary immunity

Pablo Llarena, the investigating judge in the case against the leaders of the 1 October referendum, rules on Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comín’s appeal the new European Arrest Warrant admitting that, in light of theCourt of Justice of the EU’s 19 December ruling, they are MEPs and the European Arrest Warrants cannot be enforced without lifting their immunity. He therefore asks the Belgian courts to suspend the extradition procedure, even though they had already done so, and asks the European Parliament to waive their parliamentary immunity. However, he refuses to withdraw the national arrest warrants and specifies that arrest and imprisonment in Spain do not require the lifting of their immunity. Comín and Puigdemont appeal the decision and question the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to try them now that they are no longer members of the Parliament of Catalonia and the Spanish laws concerning which courts can try MPs no longer apply.