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Catalan separatist Clara Ponsati will attempt to claim immunity as an MEP in her bid to avoid extradition from Scotland to Spain, her lawyer said Wednesday.
The former Catalonia education minister, 62, is wanted for sedition in Spain over the failed 2017 independence bid.
She was released on bail in December and has a court preliminary in Edinburgh on Thursday that should set the date for her extradition hearing.
The St Andrews University academic claims the case against her is politically motivated.
“We will be launching our submissions on the basis of which we are challenging the extradition,” her lawyer Aamer Anwar told AFP.
“That will include the question of legal immunity.”
When Britain leaves the European Union on January 31, new members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be installed on February 1 from the remaining member states to fill empty seats.
Following the May 2019 European Parliament elections, Ponsati is due to take one of the five seats redistributed to Spain, as an incoming MEP for the Together for Catalonia party.
“If Clara becomes a member of the European Parliament, then she is entitled to the immunity that is attached, the legal immunity which means that she has a right to take the seat,” said Anwar.
Catalonia’s attempted secession triggered a crisis, which the newly-formed coalition government in Madrid led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is seeking to defuse through talks with the regional government.