Pep Guardiola's family aircraft searched 'for Puigdemont in hiding'
Pep Guardiola's family aircraft searched 'for Puigdemont in hiding'
MANCHESTER City FC trainer Pep Guardiola's family's aeroplane was searched when they travelled to Barcelona yesterday (Thursday) and also the previous Sunday as the Guardia Civil wanted to check deposed Catalunya president Carles Puigdemont was not in hiding.
Puigdemont is in exile in Belgium along with four of his ministers, and if they return to Spain they would immediately be taken into custody in accordance with a national arrest warrant – but as it does not apply beyond the country's borders, they can remain free anywhere else in the world.
But Puigdemont is the only presidential candidate for the pro-independence parties which earned the most collective votes in the December 21 regional elections, and cannot be sworn in unless he attends a ceremony in person at the Catalunya Parliament offices.
This stalemate means police are extra-vigilant about checking whether or not he has attempted to enter the country.
Without warning, the Guardia Civil boarded the aircraft from Manchester after it landed in Barcelona's El Prat terminal with the Guardiola family inside, although Pep himself had stayed behind in the UK.
When asked what they were doing, they told the Guardiolas that they were searching 'several planes' to see whether Puigdemont was hiding in them.
Police also searched the car in which Pep Guardiola's daughter was travelling.
They claim the inspections were 'routine, random and nothing exceptional' and that they had also searched four other planes.
“We did not know in any of these cases the identities of the passengers, so the aircraft was searched without our knowing that the Guardiola family was on board,” a Guardia Civil source assured.
