Apart from Puigdemont, the judge requested to order European arrest warrants for four former regional ministers Toni Comin, Meritxell Serret, Lluis Puig and Clara Ponsati, according to El Pais newspaper.

Earlier, Puigdemont said that he was ready for talks with the central government, and believed that his return would be evidence of the normalization of politics and democracy in Spain. </s> A Spanish Supreme Court judge has charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians, including fugitive former regional president Carles Puigdemont, with rebellion for their attempt to declare independence from Spain.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge has charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians, including fugitive former regional president Carles Puigdemont, with rebellion for their attempt to declare independence from Spain.

Rebellion charges are punishable with up to 30 years in prison under Spanish law. In a court ruling issued on Friday, Judge Llarena said that 25 Catalans in total will be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

Others charged with rebellion were former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, who is already in pre-trial detention; seven other members of the ousted Catalan government; former Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell; jailed separatist activists Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart; and the leader of the left-republican ERC party, Marta Rovira, who defied the judge’s summons and announced on Friday that she was fleeing Spain. In a letter addressed to her party followers and posted on ERC’s website, Rovira did not say whether she had left Spain already or where she might go.

“Today I undertake a hard road, a path that, unfortunately, so many others that preceded us have had to take,” Rovira wrote, adding: “The path of exile.” Five other Catalan politicians, including Puigdemont, fled to Brussels following the failed secession attempt in late October.

An anti-establishment party’s former politician, Anna Gabriel, fled to Switzerland earlier this year. The unity of Spain is enshrined in the constitution, which says the country is “indivisible”, and courts have blocked Catalonia’s independence efforts at every turn.

Catalan presidential candidate Jordi Turull, right, and former cabinet member Josep Rull arrive at the Supreme Court in Madrid (Francisco Seco/AP) The judge also required the 14 ex-members of the Catalan cabinet to pay 2.1 million euros (£1.8 million) as a deposit before the trial establishes whether they need to pay back misused public funds. That figure includes 1.6 million euros that, according to the judicial investigation, were used to pay for the October 1 referendum that set the turbulent events in motion.

Six of the politicians were summoned to court on Friday – an indication that the judge may later in the day order them jailed pending trial. They include Jordi Turull, a former minister of the ousted regional cabinet, who on Thursday failed in his bid to be elected as the region’s new president.

The semi-autonomous region has been without a leader for nearly five months after central authorities took control following October’s illegal independence declaration. Puigdemont indicated his resolve was not shaken by the charges. “Let’s see what happens tomorrow, what happens today. Every day things change,” Puigdemont said in Helsinki, where he was on a visit.

He also aimed criticism at the judge’s decision, suggesting Judge Llarena was influenced by the political climate. “It is not right for a judge to do politics,” Puigdemont said. Judge Llarena described the case as “an attack on the constitutional state that, through the desire to impose a change in the form of government for Catalonia and the rest of the country, is of unusual gravity and persistence”. </s> Carles Puigdemont, the deposed Catalan president, was on Sunday detained by police at the German border after Spain reactivated an international warrant for his arrest on charges of rebellion over October’s referendum and declaration of independence.

Mr Puigdemont’s lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, said he was detained while crossing the border from Denmark by car on his way back to Belgium from Finland, where he had travelled to speak at an event.

"By now he is in a police station and his legal defence has already been activated," Mr Alonso-Cuevillas said.

The Spanish Supreme Court reissued European Arrest Warrants for Mr Puigdemont and four members of his former cabinet on Friday after charging 13 Catalan independence leaders with rebellion and misappropriation of funds.

The charges could see them jailed for up to 30 years. International arrest warrants were issued for two other separatist politicians, Ana Gabriel and Marta Rovira, who are currently in self-imposed exile in Switzerland.

If Mr Puigdemont does not consent to his extradition to Spain, the request will go before the German courts, a process for which he could be remanded in custody. </s> Prosecutors in Germany are to seek a warrant to extradite the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain.

Mr Puigdemont was detained by German authorities last month at the Danish border.

The former regional leader is wanted in Spain, where he faces charges of 'rebellion' and misuse of public funds - accusations arising from his role in the disputed Catalan independence referendum.

Mr Puigdemont has been in self-imposed exile from Catalonia and Spain since late last year.

Facing a European arrest warrant, prosecutors in Germany will now seek a court's permission to extradite Mr Puigdemont.

In a statement, officials said: "The prosecutor's office of Schleswig-Holstein state applied for an extradition arrest warrant against former Catalonian regional president Carles Puigdemont from the Higher Regional Court in Schleswig-Holstein."

The prosecutors said the rebellion charges - defined as 'an unconstitutional act despite expectations of violent disturbances' - have a general equivalent in German law, which is among the requirements for extradition applications.

It is not yet known when the German court will make its decision.

Associated Press reports that the former regional lawyers' will ask the court to reject the decision, and have also called on the German government to intervene over the case's 'political dimension' in Spain. </s> Madrid (AFP) - Spain's public prosecutor's office said Friday that it may appeal a German court's decision to reject the extradition of Catalonia's ousted separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to the European Court of Justice.

The German court had issued the preliminary ruling on Thursday, refusing Spain's request to send Puigdemont back to be judged for rebellion over his role in the region's failed secession bid last October.

But in a rare statement on a foreign court's decision, the Spanish office said it was "certain" that the German court's final ruling will respect the principle of "mutual recognition" of judicial decisions that is inherent in the European arrest warrant system.

"In any case, the prosecutor's office will study the possibility of exercising the relevant actions to protect and defend the European legal order... before the European Court of Justice," it added.

Based in Luxembourg, the European Court of Justice enforces the law of the 28-nation European Union.

The German court ruled that rebellion was not punishable under German law, and the closest equivalent, high treason, did not apply because Puigdemont's actions were not accompanied by violence.

But the court is still to decide whether to send the former Catalan president to Spain to face trial for alleged misuse of public funds.

Even if he is extradited on the lesser charge, the German court's refusal to accept the rebellion charge means under European law Puigdemont cannot be prosecuted in Spain for the offence, which several Spanish law professors and rights groups have called extreme.

A senior judge close to the case told AFP before the statement was released that a "protest note" was being prepared in response to the German court's decision.

The court was "undermining European judicial cooperation", the judge said, adding that it was up to Spain's Supreme Court "to interpret the concept of violence" in this case.

The Supreme Court also said in a statement that its judge Pablo Llarena, who is in charge of investigating the role played by Catalonia's separatist leaders, was considering consulting the European Court of Justice on the procedure for extradition among EU member states.

Puigdemont walked out of a German prison on Friday following the ruling, calling for "political dialogue" with Madrid to resolve the row over the region's independence bid. </s> MADRID — Spain’s Supreme Court is stripping six prominent Catalan politicians of public office for trying to make the northeastern region of the country independent.

Judge Pablo Llarena also ruled Tuesday that the six secessionists be sent to trial on charges of rebellion, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

Those charged include former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is fighting extradition from Germany, and former regional Vice-President Oriol Junqueras.

Llarena left it up to the Catalan regional parliament, where the rebellion defendants now are lawmakers, whether to replace them.

Llarena was tasked with investigating what took place in Catalonia in October, when Puigdemont’s government disobeyed a court ban on holding a secession vote and the regional parliament unilaterally declared independence.

The events triggered Spain’s most severe political crisis in decades. </s> Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena on Monday rejected a request by the Spanish state prosecutor’s office for a European arrest warrant for exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont. Puigdemont travelled from Belgium to Denmark on Monday to attend a conference at a university, Xinhua news agency reported. Llanera argued that Puigdemont’s visit to Denmark was a strategy for the former Catalan leader to be arrested in order to “force a context in which he would be able to delegate his vote as if he was in the same situation as those who are currently at the disposition of this court and who have been provisionally denied their liberty.”

This is a reference to Puigdemont’s former deputy Oriol Junqueras and the representatives in the Catalan regional assembly, Joaquim Form and Jordi Sanchez, who have been able to delegate their vote in the assembly elected on December 21, even though they are in prison facing charges of rebellion, sedition; while Junqueras faces trial for the misuse of public funds. Llanera argued that Puigdemont’s trip had “no other aim other than to provoke his arrest” to allow him to participate in the forthcoming investiture debate.

Puigdemont has been in exile in Belgium since the start of November after leaving Spain in the wake of the Catalan independence referendum and unilateral declaration of independence. The Supreme Court had previously issued a European arrest warrant when he originally travelled to Belgium only to withdraw it because Belgium does not have a crime which is the exact equivalent of rebellion. </s> BERLIN - Catalonia's ousted president Carles Puigdemont is to appear before a judge on Monday after he was detained by German police on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain, prosecutors said Sunday.

"The sole purpose of this appearance is to verify the identity of the person arrested," the regional tribunal in the town of Schleswig said in a statement.

The court will then decide if Puigdemont will be formally taken into custody pending extradition proceedings, it added.

Judges "will establish on the basis of documents provided by the Kingdom of Spain... if Mr Puigdemont's transfer to the Spanish authorities is legally founded," the court said.

It added that the 55-year-old was currently in detention without providing further details.

German police arrested Puigdemont earlier on Sunday as he crossed over by car from Denmark, where had been visiting lawmakers.

Spain's supreme court announced Friday it would prosecute 13 Catalan separatists for "rebellion" including Puigdemont, for their role in the region's failed bid to break away from Madrid last year.

If found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison. Twelve more face less serious charges such as disobedience. </s> The Latest on fugitive Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont (all times local):

Spain's state prosecutor has set in motion the process to arrest Catalonia's former leader in Denmark, where he has arrived to attend a debate.

Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is scheduled to speak Monday at the University of Copenhagen and meet Danish lawmakers on Tuesday.

The trip is Puigdemont's first outside Belgium since he fled there to avoid a Spanish probe for his role in an illegal— and unsuccessful— secession bid for Catalonia in October.

The prosecutor's office says it has asked the Supreme Court to approve a European warrant for his arrest. It's unclear if Judge Pablo Llarena will grant it. In December, Llarena withdrew a similar order, concerned that Brussels would send Puigdemont back to Spain but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there.

On Sunday, Spain's state prosecutor's office said it will reissue a European arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont if he travels from Belgium to Denmark.

Spain issued a warrant for Puigdemont's arrest in November, but withdrew it after a month amid fears that Brussels would send him back but restrict the crimes he could be tried for.

Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27.

He is slated to take part in a debate at the University of Copenhagen Monday, and Tuesday he has been invited to the Danish Parliament by a Faeroese lawmaker, but leading members of the government and opposition have declined to meet him.
Judge Llarena reactivates the European Arrest Warrants against Carles Puigdemont, Marta Rovira, and four fugitive ex-members of dismissed regional government.