Switzerland may refuse to extradite CUP spokeswoman in exile
Friday, February 23, 2018 @ 10:02 AM
PRO-INDEPENDENCE politician Anna Gabriel from the Catalunya party CUP has fled to Switzerland and faces a national arrest warrant if she returns to Spain.
She has been summoned by a court in Madrid for a hearing, but has refused to go as she does not believe she would have a fair trial.
“I'll be more useful to the independence movement in a country that will protect my rights than I would be behind bars,” Sra Gabriel told Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
According to the broadsheet, the CUP member could be jailed for up to 30 years for sedition due to her active role in the disputed independence referendum in October.
But Switzerland has said it will not extradite her.
Spokesman for the Federal Justice Office, Folco Galli, says: “This appears to be a political offence and, according to our criminal code and the European Convention on Human Rights, an extradition order where all forms of legal assistance cannot be agreed.”
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