“Puigdemont has left Spain”: Independentista lawyer confirms successful escape

Carles Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, announced this Friday that the Catalan independence activist had managed to escape from Spain, in statements on the radio. RAC1.

Boye said the politician is expected to make statements between “today and tomorrow.” “Everything went as he planned. He wasn’t going to give up, he was going to fight.”

Jordi Turull, general secretary of Junts, added to the information about the escape data confirming Puigdemont’s return to Waterloo, Belgium, where he had been in exile in recent years.

The independence activist has an arrest warrant in Spain, where he fled in 2017 after a referendum on Catalan independence that Spanish courts ruled illegal.

A busy day in Spain

Despite the order, Puigdemont returned to Catalonia on Thursday, a day marked by a series of events that caused enormous chaos in the neighboring country.

Turull said the Junts founder had intended to return to Spain to attend the investiture that gave the Catalan parliament a new leader. But the independence activist, who spoke publicly to hundreds of supporters, never made it to parliament.

“He came to Spain not to be detained, but to exercise his political rights,” Turullus also assured. RAC1.

After his speech, Puigdemont disappeared into the human cordon that accompanied him and got into a white Honda, borrowed from a police officer, according to Turull, to prevent photographers from capturing him during his arrest.

Turull also had problems with the law and was in custody between 2018 and 2021, but was pardoned by the Spanish government. Since 2022, he has been the secretary general of the party founded by Puigdemont.