Rabat – Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive former Catalan president who is wanted in Spain on rebellion and sedition charges, was detained by German police while attempting to cross the border into Denmark, according to his lawyer and party spokesman, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas.
Puigdemont “was arrested today at 11:19 a.m. by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force,” a German police spokesman said, adding that the detention was based on an international arrest warrant.
“He is now in police custody,” the spokesman said.
Puigdemont’s lawyer said in a post on Twitter that the exiled official had been intending to return by vehicle to Belgium where he has resided since fleeing Spain last October. He was then detained by the German police on an international arrest warrant.
“President Carles Puigdemont was held in Germany when he crossed the border from Denmark, on his way to Belgium from Finland,” the lawyer said.
1. El president Carles Puigdemont ha estat retingut a Alemanya quan creuava la frontera des de Dinamarca, de camí cap a Bèlgica des de Finlàndia.
— J. Alonso-Cuevillas (@JaumeAlonsoCuev) March 25, 2018
The ousted leader has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since fleeing Spain after a failed bid by his regional government to declare Catalonia’s independence from the country in late October.
The declaration led the Spanish government to impose direct rule over Catalonia, after which the Spanish court dissolved the Catalonian parliament, fired the Catalan government, and called a new regional election in December.
Puigdemont had fled to Belgium along with other members of his dissolved cabinet after Spain’s attorney-general filed charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds against Puigdemont and five of his ministers on October 30.
