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Rabat – Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s ousted president, has fled to Belgium along with other members of his dissolved cabinet after treasonous charges were laid against them in Spain.
On Monday, October 30, Spain’s attorney-general filed charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds against Puigdemont and five of his ministers.
Following the announcement of legal proceedings to be taken against the region’s dismissed president, international media reported this Monday that Catalonia’s president and five of his ministers had driven to Marseille, France, before flying to Brussels.
Paul Bakert, a Belgian lawyer acting for Puigdemont told Reuters that the sacked president will seek asylum in Belgium.
“I can affirm that Carles Puigdemont has appointed me as his legal representative, and that he is currently in Belgium,” the lawyer told Reuters in a phone conversation. However, Bakert did not confirm whether he was working with Puigdemont on an asylum claim.
Puidgemont’s escape sparked a new round of speculations about the possibility of setting up a government while in exile.
On Monday, Marta Pascal, a spokeswoman for Puigdemont’s Catalan Democratic Party told local media that “we had presidents in this country who were not able to be here during Franco’s time but were still heading the Catalan government,” referring to Josep Tradellas, a former Catalan leader.
Tardellas lived in exile in Paris after Francisco Franco, a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator, dissolved Catalonia’s autonomy for resisting his rule in 1932.
