BARCELONA — Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was on his way back to Belgium on Friday, having appeared at a rally in central Barcelona despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Spain, his party’s general secretary said on Friday.

Jordi Turull told RAC1 radio that he did not know whether Puigdemont had already reached his home in Waterloo, where he has lived for seven years in self-imposed exile since leading a failed bid for Catalonia’s secession in 2017.

He is wanted in Spain on suspicion of embezzlement related to a 2017 independence referendum, ruled illegal by the Spanish courts. Puigdemont says the vote was legal and therefore the charges linked to it have no basis.

“He did not come to be arrested in Spain but to exercise his political rights.”

Turull said Puigdemont had initially planned to attend an investiture vote in the regional parliament to elect a new leader of Catalonia.

Instead of walking from the rally to parliament, Puigdemont got into a car because of security concerns, and then decided at short notice to leave because he believed he would not be allowed to enter the parliament area, Turull said.

He added that Puigdemont had not wanted to provide an opportunity for photographs of him being arrested.

Turull was imprisoned between 2018 and 2021 on charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement over the independence referendum, but was pardoned by the Spanish government.

He has served as general secretary of Puigdemont’s hardline separatist party Junts since June 2022.
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