Ousted Catalan president stays in Brussels, says not seeking asylum

BRUSSELS: Catalonia’s axed separatist leader said on Tuesday that he would stay put in Brussels after being dismissed by the Spanish government, but denied he would seek asylum to avoid likely rebellion charges.

Calling himself the “legitimate” Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont told a packed news conference he was in Brussels “for safety purposes and freedom” and to “explain the Catalan problem in the institutional heart of Europe.”

“We want to denounce the politicisation of the Spanish justice system, its lack of impartiality, its pursuing of ideas not crimes, and to explain to the world the Spanish state’s serious democratic deficiencies ,” he said.

The 54-year-old, whom Spanish prosecutors want to charge with rebellion -- punishable by up to 30 years in jail -- and sedition, denied, however, that he would seek legal protection from Belgium. “I am not here in order to demand asylum,” Puigdemont said.

The media-savvy and floppyhaired former journalist did not detail how long he intended to stay but said that other members of his “legitimate” government would remain in Catalonia to “carry out political activity”.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that Puigdemont -- who has said he is ready to go to prison rather than give up on independence -- “will be treated like any other European citizen”. Michel stressed his government had “not undertaken any step to encourage Puigdemont’s arrival. AFP