The former separatist leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, has left Spain for Belgium just one day after participating in a demonstration in Barcelona, where he avoided a massive manhunt and arrest warrants in Spain. Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, informed Catalan radio on Friday that his client flew abroad again without providing further details.
The Secretary General of Puigdemont’s political party, Junts (Together), Jordi Turull, stated on RAC1 radio that Puigdemont arrived in Spain on Tuesday evening and left the country on Thursday evening to return to his home in Waterloo, where he has lived in self-imposed exile for seven years following a failed attempt at Catalonia’s independence in 2017.
The 61-year-old former leader addressed thousands of supporters gathered in Barcelona near the parliament on Thursday before he disappeared. A prominent Spanish judge has now requested explanations from the police and government regarding how Puigdemont was able to return to Spain and then vanish again without being arrested. Judge Pablo Llarena has asked the Ministry of Interior for details about their plan to detain him at the border as well as “the orders given” to capture the politician “after his escape,” according to documents released by the Supreme Court.
Llarena has also requested the names of “the agents responsible for designing the operation, those who approved it, and those who were given responsibility for its execution or operational implementation.” According to Al Jazeera’s reporter in Barcelona, Bernard Smith, there has been “a lot of astonishment” regarding the separatist leader’s unexpected return. “This is the first time Puigdemont has been seen on Spanish soil since he left the country in 2017 just after he declared Catalonia’s independence,” Smith stated.
Catalonia’s regional police have arrested two of their officers, including one who owned the vehicle that Puigdemont used to leave the demonstration. The police force, Mossos d’Esquadra, which initiated a manhunt, denied any collaboration with Puigdemont’s group and insisted that the officers had planned to arrest him “at the most appropriate time to avoid public unrest.” Police Chief Eduard Sallent stated on Friday that they had no information about Puigdemont escaping the country. “I do not trust what the politicians have said about his departure from Spain,” Sallent said.
Puigdemont was the leader of the regional government when a referendum on Catalonia’s independence was held on October 1, 2017. The referendum, which supported independence, was declared unconstitutional and suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court. “Although the Supreme Court approved an amnesty for the leaders behind the referendum in May, Puigdemont and two others were not eligible, hence their arrest warrants remain in force,” added Smith.