Former Catalan President Puigdemont Detained in Germany

“The president was detained when he crossed the border from Denmark, on his way to Belgium from Finland,” Puigdemont’s lawyer Jaume Alonso Cuevillas posted on Twitter.

Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont had left Finland before the country’s police could arrest him in line with an arrest warrant issued by Spain, Puigdemont’s lawyer Jaume Alonso Cuevillas announced earlier. German police say Puigdemont has been detained on a European arrest warrant. The ex-head of Catalonia is currently being held at a police station.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge had reactivated an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont on Friday while the latter was visiting Finland.

“The president was going to Belgium to put himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian justice,” Joan Maria Pique, Puigdemont’s spokesman said.

Carles Puigdemont said that he was ready for talks with the Spanish central government, and believed that his return would be evidence of the normalization of politics and democracy in the country.

On October 1, 2017, Catalonia held a referendum on the region’s independence from Spain. The vast majority of voters backed secession. The plebiscite was not, however, recognized by Madrid, which subsequently imposed direct rule over the autonomous region and dismissed its government.

Spanish authorities have opened a criminal case against 30 Catalan politicians and officials, arresting four of them, while Puigdemont, as well as several advisers of the dissolved Catalan government, fled Spain before the trial.