Catalan ex-president will risk arrest, travel to Denmark

Carles Puigdemont to make trip as he tries to get job back.

Catalonia’s former president, a fugitive sought by Spain over a foiled secession bid, will travel to Denmark next week for a university debate despite the possible risk of arrest, officials said Friday.

Carles Puigdemont plans to make the trip to Copenhagen as he tries to get his old job back and step up the pressure on Spanish authorities, which have said a fugitive abroad can’t be the Catalan regional president.

The University of Copenhagen announced a debate for Monday in the Danish capital on “Catalonia and Europe at a Crossroads for Democracy.” Janni Brixen, a media official with the university’s Faculty of Social Science, said Puigdemont would attend it “in person.”

A spokeswoman for Puigdemont’s party also confirmed that he was planning to travel to Copenhagen and attend the debate “representing the legitimate government of Catalonia.”

Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain for possible rebellion, sedition and embezzlement linked to a unilateral declaration of independence last fall in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge dropped an extradition request to Belgium in December after it became clear that authorities in Brussels would probably agree to send him back but would restrict the crimes that he could be judged for in Spain.

The separatist politician still faces detention if he returns to Spain but is free to travel elsewhere unless the judge re-activates the European and international arrest warrants against him. There was no sign of that being in the works on Friday.

Lawyer Paul Bekaert, who has represented Puigdemont in earlier extradition hearings in Belgium, declined to discuss his assessment of the risk that the trip posed. The Danish Ministry of Justice also refused to comment.

Puigdemont is seeking to be back in charge of affairs in Catalonia even if it is from self-imposed exile in Belgium.