The long arm of the law is reaching out toward ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont — but he could outrun it for a while yet.

A Spanish court issued an international arrest warrant on Friday for the ex-president of the northeastern region, who is currently in Brussels but has been charged by Spain's attorney general with crimes, including rebellion and sedition.

But that doesn't necessarily mean Puigdemont will be on a plane to Spain within a few days to answer for his role in organizing a referendum on secession and a subsequent declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament.

The European Arrest Warrant system, introduced in 2004, made extraditions between European Union countries much quicker and more straightforward. But the process is not completely automatic.

"EU countries agreed among each other that the review [of the warrant] is minimal," said Philippe Van Linthout, a Belgian investigative judge. However, he said, the law governing the use of the measure in Belgium "foresees reasons to reject the warrant, including if executing it would violate the fundamental rights of the suspect."

"I think the Belgian government should be glad they don't have to make a ... decision and it is purely left to the court" — Jan Wouters, professor of international law

The law refers to Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union, which mentions respect for "human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Van Linthout added: "If this case landed on my desk, I'd triple-check everything closely."

Assuming they receive a Spanish request to apprehend Puigdemont, Belgian authorities' first step will be to arrest him and bring him before an investigative judge. That judge will decide within 24 hours whether Puigdemont should be detained or not, and also consider whether the warrant can be dismissed entirely.

But that will not be the end of the story. The Catalan leader has the right to contest the extradition request via the Belgian legal system. His Belgian lawyer, Paul Bekaert, is an expert in fighting extradition requests and arrest warrants and he has already made clear that Puigdemont will use every legal avenue to challenge the Spanish move.

The whole procedure “can easily take a month and a half, up to two months, in my experience,” Bekaert told public broadcaster VRT on Thursday.

The Catalan ex-president can try to prevent his extradition at multiple levels in the courts, according to Belgian law (and a summary of the process prepared by law firm Allen & Overy and published by Fair Trials, a human rights charity).

His first port of call would be a chambre du conseil, a low-level judicial body. If his argument were rejected there, he could then appeal to a chambre des mises accusation, which would have 15 days to reach a decision. If that chamber found against him, he could then make a final appeal to the cour de cassation, the highest appeal court. It would have a further 15 days to reach a decision.

If the highest court found in his favor, it would send the case back to another chambre des mises accusation. And if that court decided the extradition should go ahead, Puigdemont could appeal to the cour de cassation once again.

In other words, as his lawyer suggested, Puigdemont could stay in Belgium for a month or more while he pursued all possible avenues of appeal — even if the courts keep ruling against him.

And he could stay even longer if he had some success — causing further discomfort for the Belgian government, whose fractures on Catalonia were exposed after its Flemish nationalist immigration minister publicly encouraged Puigdemont to seek asylum.

Fortunately for Prime Minister Charles Michel's administration, the European Arrest Warrant keeps politics out of the process so no minister should have to handle the delicate extradition request.

"It's purely a judicial process — and that's how [EU countries] wanted it to be," said Jan Wouters, professor of international law at the University of Leuven. "I think the Belgian government should be glad they don't have to make a ... decision and it is purely left to the court."

Asylum unlikely

Puigdemont told a chaotic press conference in Brussels earlier this week that he was not in Belgium to ask for asylum. Nevertheless, Wouters believes his lawyer might end up using that option because "as long as you're in the process of asking for asylum, you can't be removed from the territory."

However, that would likely only buy some time.

While Belgium allows citizens from other EU countries to apply for asylum, Belgian authorities are unlikely to view an application by Puigdemont in a favorable light.

In Belgium in recent years, only between 40 and 100 EU citizens requested asylum annually and the vast majority were rejected.

To obtain asylum, Puigdemont's lawyers would have to convince the Belgian government that Spain is unsafe from a legal point of view, according to legal experts. But under the EU's Amsterdam Treaty, all EU governments agreed to consider fellow member countries "safe countries of origin" as far as asylum is concerned.

There is some scope to make exceptions but in Puigdemont's case it would have to be "a very large exception," said Philippe De Bruycker, a professor of EU migration law at the Free University of Brussels.

In Belgium in recent years, only between 40 and 100 EU citizens requested asylum annually and the vast majority were rejected, said Dirk Van den Bulck, Belgium's commissioner general for refugees and stateless persons, who decides on asylum requests.

Jakob Hanke contributed reporting.