Unexpectedly and suddenly, Carles Puigdemont returns to the forefront of the Catalan political scene. The former president of the Generalitat has been arrested on Thursday night on the Italian island of Sardinia just off the plane traveling from Brussels to attend an institutional reception of the trustee of L’Alguer. As announced by ‘El Español’ and confirmed by El Periódico, Italian police have made the arrest at the Alguero airport under the warrant issued by the Supreme Court. This has been confirmed by the lawyer of the leader of Junts, Gonzalo Boye. Puigdemont will spend this Friday at the disposal of the Italian justice, which is qualified to decide whether to release him or deliver him to Spain.
According to Spanish police sources, the arrest has been carried out by three non-uniformed agents. The Italian authorities have considered taking Puigdemont from the airport police station to the central police station (Comando Provinciale) of the carabinieri in Sassari, the judicial capital of the province of Alghero, to spend the night waiting to appear early Friday before a Sardinian judge.
The former president of the Generalitat has been alone until an Italian lawyer has been present, according to the same sources. He is under reinforced surveillance to ensure the local authorities that nothing happens to him, in what they call a “maximum security regime”.
Spain informed the General Court, as stated in the resolution of 30 July last, that no country would execute such an order; in the same resolution the Vice-President of the TGUE indicated that, if necessary, a new precautionary measure should be requested.
Second arrest
This is the second arrest of Puigdemont since he fled from Spain after the failed unilateral declaration of independence (DUI) on 27th October 2017. The first occurred in Germany in March 2018 when he was travelling by car back to his residence in Waterloo (Belgium) after giving a lecture in Helsinki (Finland). Puigdemont was then admitted to Germany’s Neumünster prison, although he was released 12 days later. Subsequently, a German court rejected his delivery to Spain, which was then accusing him for a crime of rebellion, and Puigdemont returned to Belgium.
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