German police arrest exCatalan leader at border

BERLIN: German police yestserday arrested Catalonia’s former president Carles Puigdemont as he crossed the border with Denmark by car after Spain’s Supreme Court vowed to prosecute 13 key separatists over their breakaway bid.

Puigdemont “was arrested today at 11:19 am by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force,” a German police spokesman told AFP, adding that the detention was based on a European warrant.

“He is now in police custody”, added the spokesman.

Puigdemont’s arrest came just two days after Spain’s supreme court said it would prosecute for “rebellion” 13 Catalan separatists, including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull, over their role in the region’s failed breakaway bid.

If found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison.

Issuing an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont on Friday, Judge Pablo Llarena accused the ousted Catalan leader of organising the independence referendum in October last year despite a ban from Madrid.

Puigdemont had been visiting Finland since Thursday, but slipped out of the Nordic country before Finnish police could detain him.

Separately confirming his arrest in Germany, Puigdemont’s party spokeswoman Anna Grabalosa said: “It happened as he crossed the Danish- German border. He was treated well and all his lawyers are there. That is all I can say.”

Puigdemont’s lawyer Jaume Alonso- Cuevillas, said on Twitter that Puigdemont was picked up by German police as he was travelling back to Belgium.

He “was heading to Belgium to present himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian courts,” added Alonso- Cuevillas.

— Reuters photo Outside view of the prison in Neumuenster, Germany, after Puigdemont was detained in Germany four months after he went into self-imposed exile from Spain.