Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont can be released on bail pending a decision on his extradition to Spain, a German court announced Thursday.
The court in the northern state of Schleswig Holstein said in a statement that Puigdemont's release was conditional on a security payment of 75,000 euros (91,700 dollars).
Puigdemont was detained last month after entering Germany from Denmark while en route from Finland to Belgium, where he has been living in exile after being charged with rebellion and misuse of public funds over last year's independence referendum, which was banned by Madrid.
The German court added that the extradition of Puigdemont was not permissible on the basis of the rebellion charge, because the comparable German charge of treason stipulates that the defendant must have committed violence.
It added that extradition was theoretically permissible on the basis of the misuse of public funds charge, but that a decision still had to be made in that regard.
Earlier on Thursday, Puigdemont addressed the political situation in Spain from his German prison cell via a letter published on his Twitter account.
In the letter, addressed to supporters of Catalan independence, Puigdemont called for Jordi Sanchez to stand again as a candidate for the regional presidency - despite Sanchez also being behind bars in Spain.
Puigdemont also took part in a vote on Thursday - albeit indirectly - in the Catalan parliament for the first time since he fled Spain for Belgium last year, after a transfer of voting rights was approved.
An initial bid for candidacy by Sanchez failed around a month ago after the Spanish judiciary declined to free the 53-year-old temporarily.
A further attempt on March 23 - three months after fresh regional elections - to install as candidate former separatist spokesman Jordi Turull likewise failed. Turull is also currently in prison.
