Judge Pablo Llarena, of Spain's Supreme Court, confirmed on Monday the lifting of the national search and arrest warrants for Carles Puigdemont, Antoni Comin and Lluis Puig. He dismissed the popular accusation (Vox) appeal against the 6 October order that had suspended them provisionally. El Mundo and RTVE have seen the ruling. This is not an acquittal and not an announced return to Spain.

Llarena applies the Constitutional Court's doctrine from the amnesty judgment for Dolors Bassa, on embezzlement. He says he does not share it, but must follow it. Five TC judges were in the minority, seven in the majority. His disagreement, he writes, sits on the same plane as the dissents, not outside the Constitution.

The Supreme Court had held that the illegal referendum brought a patrimonial benefit: public money spent so they would not pay the cost themselves. The amnesty law excluded such cases. The TC separated personal benefit from the cost of 1 October. That, Llarena writes, forces him to drop the old reading, not to accept that it was inadmissible.

RTVE stresses the limit: the order covers the warrants only. It does not close the case file and does not dismiss the proceedings. Archiving the amnesty, if it comes, belongs to the Criminal Chamber, not the investigating judge. Puigdemont has asked for amnesty; Llarena has not yet ruled on that substance, RTVE writes.

El Pais notes that, without a national warrant, Puigdemont can enter Spain without fear of arrest on these orders. Junts has not said when he returns. A legal possibility is not an arrival. European warrants and other measures are not settled here.

Llarena faults the TC for a lack of measure in its adjectives. The majority binds, he writes, but adjectives do not make indisputable what has split the court. That is the judge's opinion, not a new judgment on the merits.

Image: FDV, Supreme Court, Madrid, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; the building, not the order.

Sources consulted: Llarena ratifica la retirada de la orden de detencion de Puigdemont - El Mundo; El juez Llarena confirma la retirada de la orden de detencion a Puigdemont - RTVE.