After six years and nine months on the run from justice, he returned to Spain, gave a speech in front of hundreds of followers and fled again.
It sounds like the plot of a thriller or a comedy, but it happened this Thursday in Barcelona and its protagonist was Carles Puigdemontone of the leaders of the Catalan independence movement.
Puigdemont, 61, is a former president of the Generalitat – the regional government of Catalonia – and currently an elected member of the Parliament of this autonomous community in northeastern Spain.
He is accused of disobedience and embezzlement by having organized an illegal referendum in 2017 and having participated in the unilateral declaration of independence of Catalonia in October 2017.
At the end of that year He fled hidden in the back of a car to Belgiumwhere he has been a fugitive for almost seven years and has an extradition order to Spain to face criminal charges.
The escape
Barcelona was preparing this week for the investiture ceremony of Salvador Illa as the new president of the Generalitat after winning the regional elections last May.
The arrival of Illa (from the Socialist Party of Catalonia) to the government puts an end to a series of pro-independence governments.
On the occasion of the proclamation of the new regional leader, the fugitive former president made an unusual appearance.
He entered Catalonia clandestinely on Tuesday and spent the whole of Wednesday hidden “in more than one place”explained Jordi Turull, secretary general of Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), the pro-independence party chaired by Puigdemont himself until 2022.
Turull claimed to have accompanied Puigdemont throughout his clandestine stay in Spain until his escape.
On Thursday, the former president went from hiding to take a bath of masses in a welcoming act organised next to the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, where he gave a speech to his followers.
“Long live a free Catalonia!” he proclaimed, and assured that he had returned “to remind you that we are still here.”
The Mossos D’esquadra, the autonomous police of Catalonia, knew that Puigdemont was in Barcelona and They organized an operation to arrest him.
However, after his intervention, and assisted by his fellow activists, the pro-independence leader He gave the police the slip and fled again.
A chase was launched with temporary checkpoints on the roads of Barcelona and Spanish television channels showed images of police checkpoints in La Junquera, a town on the border with France.
However, this did not stop Puigdemont cross the border between Spain and France and return to Belgiumwhere he resides, according to authorities from his party.
Who is responsible
This unusual succession of events has generated a strong controversy in Spainwhere the media has highlighted the scandal of a high-level fugitive entering the country, appearing at a public event and then escaping again without being arrested.
The Mossos police force has also been blamed for this happening.
The chief commissioner of the Mossos, Eduard Sallent, gave some explanations on Friday about what happened, which have not helped to calm the scandal.
He said that, to outwit the police, Puigdemont used techniques such as wearing a straw hat similar to that of other people present at the event, in addition to enjoying the protection of “a human wall” of coreligionists who allegedly prevented the agents from arresting him.
Sallent defended that the plan had been to arrest him “in the most appropriate place” and specified that the former president of the Generalitat “fled the place in a vehicle that the Mossos They tried to stop him, but they didn’t succeed.“.
He also confirmed that two officers have been arrested on suspicion of helping him escape.
Catalan police are now facing scrutiny from a Spanish Supreme Court judge, who has demanded an explanation of why Puigdemont managed to escape.
Judge Pablo Llarena, who issued the arrest warrant for Puigdemont, has also asked the Interior Ministry of Pedro Sánchez’s government about its plans to arrest him at the border, something that did not happen.
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- Carles Puigdemont surrenders to Belgian justice and is released on bail pending a decision on his extradition to Spain