Puigdemont vows to 'never surrender', 'continue fight': lawyer

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March 27, 2018 4:45 PM

"And he has expressed his full trust in the German legal system," Boye added, pending a German court decision on Spain's bid to have him extradited.

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, in German custody pending possible extradition to Spain to face "rebellion" charges, vows to "never surrender" in his fight for regional independence, his lawyer said Tuesday.

"He has said we will never surrender and that is his message to the Catalan people and also that they have the right to express their willingness for independence and a republic in Catalonia," attorney Gonzalo Boye said after visiting Puigdemont in jail following his arrest Sunday on a European warrant.

Boye said Puigdemont wanted to "pass the message" to the Catalan people that "he will continue fighting and this is going to be a long fight but it will be a fight that he will" win.

A court in the German town of Neumuenster ordered Puigdemont to remain in custody pending possible extradition to Spain.

His arrest came five months after he went on the run as Spanish prosecutors sought to charge him with sedition and rebellion in the wake of Catalonia's failed independence bid in October.

A ruling on extradition based on a European arrest warrant must normally be made within 60 days.

A spokeswoman for the German prosecutor's office told AFP it would "probably not come this week" ahead of the four-day Easter holiday.

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