“We will see in the coming weeks what we are doing.”
Bekaert, who has worked as a human rights lawyer for over 40 years, said he could take on other Catalan leaders as clients.
He said his experience fighting extradition requests from Madrid for Basque separatists would be useful -- though new EU rules make it harder for European countries to refuse to send people to other EU states on what he called “political” charges.
“I know the Spanish reaction very well. I know their psychology and their mentality,” Bekaert said, saying Puigdemont had, however, come to Belgium primarily because Brussels was “the capital of Europe” and a forum to address the wider world.
He accused Madrid of abusing court processes in Spain for political ends -- referring to its refusal to permit a Catalan independence referendum and pursuit of Catalan regional leaders. Puigdemont has been accused of rebellion and sedition.
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