It’s already clear the European justice system is judicially incoherent and as susceptible to manipulation as that of a “lesser” democracy. Which calls into question the whole idea of a "European" arrest warrant for the Schengen countries.
In Belgium not one of the five Catalan politicians in exile spent a night in jail. Currently Puigdemont is in a German jail, but the 3 in Belgium (Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret i Lluís Puig) are not in jail and Scotland has reacted angrily to the suggestion that the fifth person Clara Ponsati should be extradited. In Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Belgium and Switzerland they are not viewed as the dangerous criminals European arrest warrants are for.
Today the Spanish press bragged about the details of the government's its 5 month international intelligence sting to "get" Puigdemont’s in a “cooperative” country.
"Controlled since his departure in Finland, at first the managers of the device considered his arrest in Denmark, where precisely the secret services had installed their command center to direct operations. However, it was ruled out having the conviction that the former president was going to continue his journey by land in Germany. This country is considered by Spain one of the EU states with which there are better relations of police collaboration. The Spanish secret services describe their relationship with their German colleagues as "excellent". Courtesy Google Translate from: https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2018/03/25/actualidad/1521982898_293134.html
It was a clever strategy for the 5 Ministers in exile to go to Belgium, and Scotland to publicize the biased and politicized Spanish judiciary. With Merkel's (political) cooperation Germany has jumped into the fray.
Although only a third of European arrest warrants are usually executed (5,300/16,000) as Der Spiegel reported yesterday, Spanish police were boasting yesterday on Twitter about their covert international intelligence operation to nab Puigdemont in Germany. Today the Spanish press revealed the details of their spying operation, hacking his smartphone and bugging the geolocation system on his car.
The Spanish government wanted to get him in Germany. Not in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium or Switzerland.
Merkel is a good friend of Rajoy. CDU and PP are closely aligned. That Rajoy's government has created a temple to Franco's fascist dictatorship (Valley of the Fallen) does not bother Merkel.
On March 24, Puigdemont's lawyer had publicly announced he would cooperate (again) with Belgian courts when he arrived back from Finland. But Spain didn't want him in Belgium.
Highway police nabbed Puigdemont just across the Danish border and having hacked the GPS knew exactly where to find him on his 1000+km Finland-Belgium drive: the little town of Schuby. This is significant.
Suddeustche Zeitung asked: "Who in Kiel or Berlin ordered this?" Who indeed?
Belgium had recognized Spain's first arrest warrant as a trumped up political charge. They never put him in jail and on Dec 5, 2017, fearing further humiliation, Spain quietly withdrew the (first) warrant. The Spanish government had announced publicly after the October declaration of independence that it would arrest the government. That's how Spanish courts work: Rajoy says, "We will arrest you." He then orders the "independent" judiciary to arrest the democratically elected leaders. And the courts wag their tails and whip out the orders. No proper hearing, nothing. Straight to pre-trial detention.
After Rajoy called a snap election and oops, pro-independence parties won (again), he ordered the courts to jail every possible presidential candidate, blocking the formation of a government.
Rajoy is probably counting on the fact that Germans, specifically the Gestapo, have a lot of experience in sending Catalan Presidents back to face Fascist dictatorships. In 1940 they sent Lluis Companys back to Franco to be shot by firing squad. But since then, the Germans have learnt a lot of hard lessons from history. The Spanish apparently, have not.
Germans in general are quite outraged by the cooperation with Spanish intelligence.
"the German judiciary should be careful for historical reasons when dealing with alleged political criminals"...
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/verhaftung-von-carles-puigdemont-spanische-machtspiele-mitten-in-deutschland-1.3921455
Another good opinion:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/eu-haftbefehl-was-den-fall-puigdemont-so-knifflig-macht-1.3921692
For more details on the intelligence op:
"the three large intelligence sections of the State Security Forces began to move troops to Brussels only a few hours after it was confirmed, on October 30, that Puigdemont had taken refuge in that country along with other members of the previous Government for avoid the action of the Spanish Justice."