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Ex-Catalan separatist leader Puigdemont leaves Spain Al Jazeera Catalonia’s former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has left for Belgium a day after briefly appearing at a rally in Barcelona and evading a massive manhunt and an arrest warrant in Spain. Puigdemont’s lawyer Gonzalo Boye told Catalan radio on Friday that his client had fled abroad again without giving details. His Junts party’s general secretary, Jordi Turull, told RAC1 radio that Puigdemont had arrived in Spain on Tuesday night and left on Thursday evening to head back to his home in Waterloo, where he has lived for seven years in self-imposed exile since leading a failed bid for Catalonia’s secession in 2017. The 61-year-old former leader delivered a speech to thousands of supporters gathered in Barcelona near parliament on Thursday and then disappeared. A top Spanish judge demanded explanations from police and the government about how Puigdemont was able to return to Spain and vanish again without arrest. Judge Pablo Llarena asked the Ministry of Interior for details of its plan to arrest him at the border as well as “the orders that were issued” to capture the politician “after his escape”, according to documents made public by the Supreme Court.

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Ex-Catalan
separatist leader Puigdemont leaves Spain
Al Jazeera
Catalonia’s former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has left for Belgium a day after briefly appearing at a rally in Barcelona and evading a massive manhunt and an arrest warrant in Spain.
Puigdemont’s lawyer Gonzalo Boye told Catalan radio on Friday that his client had fled abroad again without giving details.
His Junts party’s general secretary, Jordi Turull, told RAC1 radio that Puigdemont had arrived in Spain on Tuesday night and left on Thursday evening to head back to his home in Waterloo, where he has lived for seven years in self-imposed exile since leading a failed bid for Catalonia’s secession in 2017.
The 61-year-old former leader delivered a speech to thousands of supporters gathered in Barcelona near parliament on Thursday and then disappeared.
A top Spanish judge demanded explanations from police and the government about how Puigdemont was able to return to Spain and vanish again without arrest.
Judge Pablo Llarena asked the Ministry of Interior for details of its plan to arrest him at the border as well as “the orders that were issued” to capture the politician “after his escape”, according to documents made public by the Supreme Court.