Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, wanted under arrest warrant, has managed to flee Spain after a brief visit to Barcelona and despite a large police presence, his lawyer said on Friday.
“Puigdemont is outside the Spanish state,” the Catalan radio station RAC1 quoted Boye as saying. He did not state whether Puigdemont had returned to Belgium, where he had spent most of his almost seven-year exile.
Puigdemont will address the public in the near future, Boye said.
Despite Spain’s amnesty for separatists, there is still an arrest warrant out for Puigdemont, accused by investigating judge Pablo Llarena of embezzlement in 2017, an offence exempt from the amnesty.
Llarena is now demanding an explanation from the police as to how Puigdemont managed to escape.
