Prosecutors have asked a regional court in northern Germany to permit the extradition of the former Catalan leader to Spain. Puigdemont has been detained in Germany since March 25. The public prosecutor for Germany’s northern state of Schleswig-Holstein announced on Tuesday that it had requested the extradition of former Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont.

Puigdemont is being charged in Spain with rebellion and misuse of public funds, for his involvement in the Catalan independence referendum of October 2017. The former leader was living in self-imposed exile in Belgium and was in Finland on March 24, when Spain reactivated the European arrest warrant against him. Puigdemont was arrested when he entered Germany on March 25, as he was making his way back to Belgium.

The request came as a surprise to many European politicians , questioning how such a Medieval crime as a “rebellion” could enter the EU modern legal system.