Puigdemont arrested in Germany on way home to Belgium

An international arrest warrant issued on Friday by Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena led to Puigdemont handing himself in to the police in Finland, where he had gone to give a conference at Helskinki University on the situation in Catalunya.

He was registered and released, then this morning (Sunday) was arrested in Germany after crossing the border from Denmark in his Rénault.

The exiled president was on the A7 motorway heading south and was detained in the town of Schuby in the province or 'Land' of Schleswig at 11.20 today.

Spanish Intelligence services are said to have located him en route and warned German police.

Puigdemont's solicitor Jaume Alonso Cuevillas confirmed his client's arrest, and says so far he has been 'treated properly at every step'.

“At the moment, he is in a police cell and his legal representation has been activated,” says Alonso Cuevillas, who admitted that he did not know 'exactly' where Puigdemont was.

Puigdemont had intended to go straight to the police in Belgium once he was home, just as he did when the Supreme Court issued a European arrest warrant in October, which was later withdrawn and replaced with a national order, meaning he was safe from custody anywhere except in Spain.

The former regional leader has a separate lawyer in Belgium, who is in contact with solicitors in Germany.

Puigdemont was reportedly in a hired car and had flight tickets to return to Brussels last night, according to Finnish MP Mikko Kärnä, one of the ex-president's hosts in Helsinki.

Police were patrolling all ports and airports last night in accordance with the European arrest warrant rules.

Another warrant has been issued for the four ministers who fled to Belgium with Puigdemont – Meritxell Serret, Lluís Puig, Antoni Comín, and Clara Ponsatí who has since travelled to Edinburgh to take up her old job as head of studies in the faculty of psychology at St Andrew's University.

An international order has been issued for secretary-general of the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), Marta Rovira, who left for Switzerland when she was summoned to the Supreme Court on Friday.

Five Catalunya politicians who did attend the Supreme Court hearing are now in custody without bail, including Jordi Turull, who was due to be sworn in as regional president yesterday (Saturday).

As for Puigdemont, he will have 10 days to decide whether or not he agrees with being extradited to Spain and, if he accepts, would be returned to his home country within five days.

If he does not, a two-month legal process would commence, during which Puigdemont would be required to report to the court in Germany regularly.

The criminal offence of 'rebellion' or 'sedition', which Puigdemont is charged with by the Supreme Court, does not exist in Germany, although the country does recognise the offence of 'high treason' against the German Federation.

According to Article 10 of this law, prison sentences range from 10 years to life, with the latter applying to those who attempt 'by force or threats of force' to 'prejudice the existence of the German Federal Republic' or to 'change the Constitutional order' of the Bundesrepublik.

How far this would apply, if at all, to Puigdemont will need to be decided by German authorities.