Catalan exile Puigdemont held in Germany
CARLES PUIGDEMONT, the deposed Catalan president, was yesterday detained by police at the German border after Spain reactivated an international warrant for his arrest on charges of rebellion over October’s referendum and declaration of independence.
Jaume Alonso-cuevillas, Mr Puigdemont’s lawyer, said he was held while crossing the border from Denmark by car on his way back to Belgium from Finland, where he had spoken at an event. “By now he is in a police station and his legal defence has already been activated,” he said.
German media reported that Mr Puigdemont had been transferred to Neumuenster prison following his arrest, which took place at a service station just inside the border in the northern state of Schleswig-holstein.
Ralph Doepper, a deputy prosecutor, said a judge would decide today if he would remain in custody while the extradition case was heard, reported the German news agency DPA.
Elsa Artadi, the spokesperson for Mr Puigdemont’s Junts per Catalunya party, said: “Spain does not guarantee a fair trial” for Mr Puigdemont, but “only vengeance and repression”.
The Spanish Supreme Court reissued European arrest warrants for Mr Puigdemont and four members of his former cabinet on Friday after charging 13 Catalan independence leaders with rebellion and misappropriation of funds. International arrest warrants were issued for Ana Gabriel and Marta Rovira, two other separatist politicians who are in exile in Switzerland. Quim Torra, a Junts per Catalunya parliamentarian, called for international help over the Spanish crackdown. “This is not a German issue, it is the entire EU that has the responsibility now,” he said.
Independence supporters yesterday took to the streets in Barcelona and across Catalonia over the prosecutions, and the jailing on Friday of five of the charged separatists including Jordi Turull, who was to be inaugurated as president on Saturday.
Protests also broke out in the Basque country. Arnaldo Otegi, general coordinator of EH Bildu, the Basque independence party, said: “Today it is Catalonia, tomorrow it will be the Basque country.” However, Albert Rivera, the leader of the conservative Ciudadanos party, said: “He tried to destroy a European democracy, violate democratic laws, destroy coexistence and misappropriate public money, but he could not enjoy impunity, justice has done its job.”
Focus, the German magazine, has reported that Spanish intelligence had been monitoring Mr Puigdemont’s location, and alerted German police.
Scottish authorities have said they received an arrest warrant for Clara Ponsati, Catalonia’s former education minister, who recently left Belgium after four months of self-imposed exile to return to her post at the University of St Andrews.