Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena has issued an arrest warrant for Anna Gabriel. He's done part of what VOX and the public prosecution had asked him for, but has stopped halfway between prudence and ridicule.
Currently the arrest warrant is meaningless, because it only applies in Spanish territory and it's clear that Gabriel, who this Wednesday ignored a summons to the Supreme Court, as she had announced she would, has no plans to set foot back in Spain. She's in Geneva, working on her defence, and even she doesn't know when she'll be able to return. She's waiting for them close the case to do so. And it's clear that she's not going to take any risks.
Almost all the pro-independence leaders who have been charged and/or investigated and have testified to the Supreme Court have ended up in prison or having to post bail to avoid it. The only ones saved bail have been Mireia Boya, former CUP deputy, Neus Lloveras, former president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence; Marta Pascal, PDeCAT's general coordinator, and former president Artur Mas. Legal sources had already been suggesting that charging them didn't make sense because none of them played any role in preparing the referendum for 1st October last year.
In Gabriel's case, however, things are different. "They have it in for her," defence sources say. And as such they prepared a strategy which ended up bursting Spanish justice's bubble. Not without the public prosecutor's annoyance, who, in their request for Gabriel to be arrested and imprisoned, they criticise Llarena for letting her escape on 14th February, the day she was originally summonsed for. Her lawyer, Benet Salellas had asked for a postponement, giving Gabriel some leeway and more time and, at the same time, avoiding harming Boya's strategy, who was able to testify before Gabriel announced she was in Switzerland.
Llarena didn't want to make a fool of himself issuing an international arrest warrant and asking for extradition. But instead he's ended up doing so by activating an arrest warrant for a country that everyone knows Anna Gabriel doesn't plan to come to for months.
Backtracking thrice
Gabriel is now in the same situation as president Carles Puigdemont and ministers Toni Comín, Clara Ponsatí, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig, who settled in Belgium after the declaration of independence. They can travel anywhere, except Spain. This was seen when Puigdemont went to Copenhagen, where, despite the public prosecution asking for a new European Arrest Warrant, Llarena backtracked.
The judge doesn't want European justice to leave the Spanish system in bad standing. That's why he withdrew the European Arrest Warrant when everything in Belgium seemed to be indicating that they wouldn't accept all parts of the extradition requests against Puigdemont and his fellow ministers.
This means Llarena has now backed down three times: revoking the extradition request sent to Belgium, not reactivating it when Puigdemont went to Copenhagen and now not asking for a new international arrest warrant in Switzerland for Anna Gabriel. A hat-trick.
The judge's idea is to end the investigation phase and clearly define the charges so that when he writes the order to start the trial he can then request extradition. This was meant to happen in April, but could be put back a whole year, if the case is declared to be "complex" as the public prosecutor asks, giving more time for the investigation.
Another year of investigation
Another year of tricky legal decisions for Llarena, who has hurt his relationship with the public prosecutors, who is under ever more pressure from the Spanish government and whom VOX, who have brought a private acusación popular action in the case, have put between a rock and a hard place by now asking him to call prime minister Mariano Rajoy to testify. All of this raises tensions even further and distances any possibility of negotiation.
Another year with 4 people in prison and 6 more in exile.