The Scottish Parliament should offer Clara Ponsati asylum in Holyrood .

3. 
   

   Former Catalan education minister  will fight an international order for her extradition to Spain from Scotland, arguing that as a secessionist leader she is not guaranteed a fair trial, her lawyer said on Monday.The European arrest warrant was one of a series issued to leaders of Catalonia's independence movement on charges of rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state.

   
   

   Lawyer Aamer Anwar told BBC radio

   .

   "This is a political persecution, a systematic attempt to criminalise the desire for independence," We believe that if she is sent back to Spain then she will suffer inhuman and degrading treatment, that the independence of the judiciary in Spain cannot be guaranteed."
   
   Ponsati, who is a professor at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, will present herself at court in Edinburgh and will apply for bail,

   
   The case is being closely watched in Scotland, where the nationalist devolved government said on Sunday that although it supports Catalonia's right to self-determination, it would respect the judicial process.
   
   Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said she supported the right of the Catalan people to determine their own future but the Scottish authorities were obliged to follow due process and ministers were not permitted to intervene.
   
   She added:

    

    "We strongly oppose the Spanish government's decision to seek the arrest and imprisonment of independence supporting politicians.
   
   "The fact that our justice system is legally obliged to follow due process in the determination of extradition requests does not change those views."
   

   Though this is a reserved matter and it will be Westminster that decide ,  This is a bit of a cop out Ms Sturgeon should have indicated that if her Government  was in a position to do so, it would not agree to carry it out.

   
   

   Though at least one of Ms Sturgeon's MP is clear that this warrant should not be obeyed and not allow Clara Ponsati's extrication.

   
   

   
   

   
   Verified account @AngusMacNeilSNP

   Is Germany going to help the fascism of today's Spain? They cannot hand over a democratically elected politician to a Spanish jail!! #Puigdemont
   
   448 replies 117 retweets 249 likes

   It seems that  some Labour MPs have no qualms
   

   Ian Murray‏Verified account @IanMurrayMP 19h19 hours ago
   
   
   
   Ian Murray Retweeted Angus B MacNeil MP
   
   
   It’s seems as long as you support independence you can sit above the law. Someone has been accused of breaking the law & should be given the opportunity to clear their name in that country’s court. We would expect the same so respect the law (even if you disagree with the law).
   

   Nelson Mandela Mr Murray ? Martin Luther King? do you respect the then laws of the counties that imprisoned them?
   This followed news that authorities in Germany detained former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on Sunday after he crossed into the country from Denmark, setting up a possible extradition of the separatist leader to Spain. 
   Puigdemont’s attorney announced the detention on Twitter and said his client had been taken to a police station. German police confirmed in a statement that Puigdemont had been taken into custody at 11:19 a.m. Sunday by highway patrol officers in Schleswig-Holstein, a state that borders Denmark.
   

   For many this has echoes of the past for Germany
   

   For anybody not overly familiar with past crimes of the Spanish State in relation to Catalan elected officials have a read of this..
   Lluis was the President of Catalonia before and during the civil war. He was exiled in France but was arrested by the French Police and handed over to German authorities.
   He was returned to Spain , tortured and finally sentenced to death for the charges of Rebellion.
   He remains the only elected President in European history to have been executed.
   
   .

   

   Lluís Companys - Wikipedia

   Lluís Companys i Jover (Catalan pronunciation: [ʎuˈis kumˈpaɲs]; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a leftist politician. He was the President of Catalonia (Spain), from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.

   en.wikipedia.org

    

    

   The silence of the Unionist Parties is deafening. Can it be that there are sections in them who are applauding  the heirs of Franco in clamping down on "secessionists"  and would like to apply it here,?

   
   

   As for the Scottish Government.  Maybe the Scottish Parliament should offer asylum to Clara Ponsati within Holyrood.

   
   

   Just how many MSP's would back this is uncertain, but the sit  of Scottish Police entering the Parliament building on the orders of a Westminster minster obeying a fascist government would be edifying.