Carles Puigdemont ‘fleeing police pursuit and fled Spain’

Carles Puigdemont, the exiled former Catalan leader, has escaped a large number of police officers and fled to Spain, his party said.

Spanish authorities he started a search operation of Mr Puigdemont on Thursday after he returned from Spain, gave a brief speech to crowds in Barcelona and then disappeared.

The 61-year-old is wanted by Spain on charges related to the failed bid for Catalan independence in 2017.

After a tumultuous 24 hours on the run, Mr Puigdemont has returned to Belgium where he lives, his party’s secretary general Jordi Turull said on Friday.

In 2017, Catalonia’s pro-independence leaders including Mr Puigdemont organized a referendum – ruled illegal by Spain’s constitutional court – and later declared the region’s independence.

Madrid imposed direct rule in the region after which Mr Puigdemont fled to Belgium.

Many years ago he lived in Brussels.

On his return after seven years in exile, Mr Puigdemont spoke briefly to hundreds of supporters gathered near the Catalan parliament in Barcelona.

“Long live a free Catalonia!” he told fans and foreign journalists on Thursday, before saying that he was back “to remind you that we are still here”.

“Holding a referendum is not and will never be a crime,” Mr Puigdemont said before quickly disappearing.

In an interview with radio station RAC1 on Friday, Mr Turull said he knew the former Catalan leader was in Brussels but could not confirm if he had returned to his home in Waterloo municipality.

According to the party’s general secretary, Mr Puigdemont had been in Barcelona since Tuesday before appearing outside the Barcelona parliament on Thursday.

Mr Turull said the former separatist leader had dinner in Barcelona on Tuesday night and spent all of Wednesday and Thursday in the region.

His appearance coincided with the inauguration of Socialist Salvador Illa as the new Catalan president, which has been overshadowed by the search for Mr Puigdemont.

Roads were temporarily blocked around Barcelona and Spanish TV showed footage from La Jonquera, a municipality on the French border, where police could be seen stopping cars and checking bootlegs.

Catalonia’s police, known as the Mossos d’Esquadra, are facing an intensive investigation by a Spanish Supreme Court judge, who has demanded an explanation as to why Mr Puigdemont was able to escape.

Judge Pablo Llarena, who issued the arrest warrant for Mr Puigdemont, asked the Spanish Ministry of the Interior about its plans to detain him at the border.

In documents made public by the High Court, Mr Llarena asked the Ministry to explain what orders were issued to detain him “after his escape”.

On Friday, Justice Minister Felix Bolanos said the search for Mr Puigdemont was the responsibility of the Mossos as the head of the judiciary in Catalonia.

On Thursday, a Catalan police officer was arrested on suspicion of helping Mr Puigdemont escape, said a spokesman for the Mossos d’Esquadra.

The policeman is suspected of having the car in which Mr Puigdemont escaped after making his address, Spanish media said. Police later arrested a second officer.

The party has denied allegations that there is collusion with the former leader.

Instead, it said “he used the numbers of the people who were around him and fled in a car that the Mosso tried to stop but failed.