Puigdemont’s lawyer says he left Spain after escaping manhunt

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, wanted on an arrest warrant, 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,” Catalan radio station RAC1 quoted Boye as saying. He did not say whether Puigdemont had returned to Belgium, where he spent most of his nearly seven-year exile.

Puigdemont will address the public in the near future, Boye said.

Despite the Spanish amnesty for the separatists, there is still an arrest warrant for Puigdemont, accused by investigating judge Pablo Llarena of embezzlement in 2017, a crime exempt from the amnesty.

Llarena now demands an explanation from the police as to how Puigdemont managed to escape.