Joe McConnell
Carles Puigdemont, the exiled former Catalan leader, has escaped a massive police manhunt and fled Spain, his party said.
Spanish authorities has launched a major manhunt for Mr Puigdemont on Thursday after his surprise return to Spain, after giving a brief speech to crowds in Barcelona and then disappearing.
The 61-year-old is wanted by Spain on charges related to the failed bid to win independence for Catalonia in 2017.
After a tumultuous 24 hours on the run, Mr Puigdemont has now returned to Belgium, where he lives, his party’s secretary general, Jordi Turull, said on Friday.
In 2017, Catalonia’s independence leaders, including Mr Puigdemont, organised a referendum (which was declared illegal by Spain’s constitutional court) and later declared the region’s independence.
Shortly thereafter, Madrid imposed direct control over the region and Mr Puigdemont fled to Belgium.
For most of the last few years he has lived in Brussels.
Upon his return after seven years in exile, Mr Puigdemont addressed hundreds of supporters gathered near the Catalan parliament in Barcelona.
“Long live free Catalonia!” he told supporters and international journalists on Thursday, before adding that he had returned “to remind you that we are still here.”
“Organizing a referendum is not and will never be a crime,” added Mr Puigdemont before quickly disappearing.
In an interview on Friday with radio station RAC1, Mr Turull said he knew the former Catalan leader was in Brussels but could not confirm whether he had returned to his home in the municipality of Waterloo.
The chief commissioner of the Catalan police Mossos d’Esquadra, Eduard Sallent, told reporters on Friday that he had no information on Mr Puigdemont’s whereabouts and that the plan was to arrest him “in the most suitable place”.
He confirmed that two officers had been arrested on suspicion of helping Mr Puigdemont escape, adding that “it is possible that other Mossos helped him escape” and that the force would follow the appropriate criminal and administrative procedures in each case.
An officer allegedly owns a car in which Mr Puigdemont fled after giving his speech, Spanish media reported. The force has denied allegations that there was collusion with the former leader.
Instead, it says, “he took advantage of the number of people around him and fled the scene in a vehicle that the Mossos tried to stop but failed.”
According to the party’s secretary general, Puigdemont had been in Barcelona since Tuesday, before making a surprise appearance outside the Barcelona parliament on Thursday.
Mr Turull said the former separatist leader had dinner in Barcelona on Tuesday night and spent all of Wednesday and Thursday in the region.
His appearance coincided with the investiture of the socialist Salvador Illa as the new president of Catalonia.
A manhunt was launched, with temporary checkpoints set up near Barcelona, and Spanish TV broadcast footage from La Jonquera, a town on the border with France, where police could be seen stopping cars and checking boots.
Police in Catalonia are under severe scrutiny from a Spanish Supreme Court judge, who has demanded explanations as to why Mr Puigdemont was able to escape.
Judge Pablo Llarena, who issued the arrest warrant for Puigdemont, also asked the Spanish Interior Ministry for information about its plans to arrest him at the border.
In documents made public by the Supreme Court, Mr Llarena asked the ministry to explain what orders had been issued to detain him “after his escape”.
On Friday, Justice Minister Felix Bolanos said the search for Mr Puigdemont was the responsibility of the Mossos, as Catalonia’s law enforcement authorities.
But Mossos director general Pere Ferrer said Thursday’s events had left the police “in a situation they don’t deserve” and that blaming officers for “unresolved political problems is bad business.”
