BRUSSELS: A Belgian judge will decide on December 14 whether to grant a European arrest warrant and send axed Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont back to Spain on sedition charges, lawyers said on Monday.
Lawyers for Puigdemont and four of his former ministers, who fled to Belgium in October despite a summons to appear in court in Spain, argued in a Brussels court that they would not get a fair trial.
Prosecutors last month asked the judge to approve the warrant issued by Madrid for the five in the opening round of what could become a protracted courtroom battle.
"We belive that the facts held against the Catalan government are not punishable in Belgium and that an extradition to Catalonia and Spain would violate their fundamental rights," lawyer Christophe Marchand told reporters after the hearing.
"The judge will give his decision on December 14," he added.
The judgement will come at a sensitive time, just days ahead of new elections that have been called for Catalonia on December 21.
Madrid wants the vote to "restore normality" to the wealthy northeastern region, which declared independence following a hotly disputed October 1 referendum.
Spanish prosecutors want to prosecute Puigdemont and his former ministers for rebellion -- which carries a maximum 30-year jail sentence -- and sedition for their role in the independence drive, as well as for misusing public funds.
Puigdemont's lawyer said at the weekend that he would remain in Belgium until after the elections.
"No matter what, they will be (in Brussels) till at least December 21 and according to my calculations this could go on till mid-January," lawyer Jaume Alonso Cuevillas told Catalan radio Rac1, referring to Puigdemont and the four former ministers.
"I am convinced that no matter what happens they will have recourse to an appeal," he said.
Meanwhile a Spanish Supreme Court judge ruled Monday that Catalonia's sacked vice president Oriol Junqueras and three other separatist leaders would remain in prison pending a probe over their role in the region's independence drive.
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