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