Charges fild to extradite ex-Catalan leader

BERLIN REUTERS April 3-German prosecutors filed a request to a regional court on Tuesday for the extradition of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges of rebellion over the region’s campaign for independence.   

 Puigdemont has been held in a detention centre in the northern German town of Neumuenster for just over a week after he was arrested in Germany on March 25.   

 Prosecutors in the state of Schleswig-Holstein said Spain’s extradition request was admissible because accusations of rebellion included carrying out an anti-constitutional referendum even though violent clashes could be expected.   

 “This has a comparable equivalent in German law,” said the prosecutors in a statement.   

 Prosecutors also asked the Higher Regional Court in Schleswig-Holstein, which will decide on the extradition, to keep Puigdemont in prison during the proceedings because there was a danger he would try to escape.   

 Puigdemont fled Spain five months ago for Belgium after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed his regional administration.