Catalonia’s Puigdemont to attend October extradition hearing

By ANDREA ROSA and NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ALGHERO, Sardinia (AP) — Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont is vowing to keep travelling throughout Europe to campaign for the region’s independence from Spain. But he is also confirming that he will appear at an Oct. 4 hearing in Sardinia to decide whether Italy will extradite him to Spain to face sedition charges. Puigdemont, a member of the European Union’s parliament who previously served as president of Spain’s restive Catalonia region, struck a defiant tone during a press conference 48 hours after he was arrested upon his arrival in Sardinia to attend a Catalan cultural festival and then freed. Piugdemont said Saturday he would attend the hearing, “answer all the questions the judge will ask me,” and assumed he would walk free.