A Spanish Supreme Court judge has dropped his extradition requests for six Catalan separatist politicians wanted on rebellion charges.

They include Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s ex-regional president who fled to Belgium to avoid arrest and then went to Germany.

The moves comes after a German court recently ruled Mr Puigdemont could not be sent back to Spain for rebellion, only for misuse of public funds.

Germany Spain Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont is among those affected by the ruling (Markus Schreiber/AP)

Judge Pablo Llarena said in a decision published on Thursday that he was revoking the international arrest warrants against the six, in what the Catalan separatist movement was likely to regard as a major victory against Spain’s central authorities.

The charges are in connection with the Catalan regional government’s unauthorised referendum last year on independence from Spain and a subsequent unilateral declaration of independence by the separatist-controlled regional parliament.