Ben Pawlowski
THE Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested a second officer over their alleged involvement in helping Carles Puigdemont, the separatist leader, to escape from Barcelona following his return from a seven-year exile.
It comes after the first officer was cuffed and interrogated earlier today.
The first arrested male is accused of being the owner of a vehicle which investigators believe Puigdemont used to flee the city after making a brief speech in front of thousands of supporters next to the iconic Arc de Triomf.
Puigdemont, the leader of the pro-independence Junts per Catalunya party, has lived in exile ever since he fled Spain in the boot of a car seven years ago after the Spanish government launched criminal charges for his role in the 2017 independence drive.
As Catalan president, Puigdemont organised a botched independence referendum, which was deemed illegal, and unilaterally declared Catalunya as an independent state, provoking Spain’s most significant political crisis since the Franco dictatorship.
This morning, Puigdemont crossed the Spanish border for the first time since 2017 to coincide with the investiture debate of Salvador Illa, a Socialist ally of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who appears set to become the region’s first pro-unity president in 14 years.
Flanked by members of his Junts party, including the regional parliamentary speaker Josep Rull, Puigdemont gave a brief speech to 2,500 pro-independence supporters outside the parliament building.
Videos emerged on social media of supporters clashing with counter-protesters from far-right Vox and Spanish police who launched tear gas as tensions boiled over.
After the speech, Puigdemont quickly disappeared, prompting police to launch ‘Operation Cage’, an attempt to block all exits out of Barcelona so that police can arrest the former regional president.
According to reports, police are searching for the location of a white car, the vehicle owned by the arrested Mossos officer, which they believe Puigdemont used to escape the city and likely head towards the French border.
Puigdemont is currently subject to an arrest warrant regarding the alleged embezzlement of public funds whilst he was regional premier.
A highly controversial amnesty law passed earlier this year by the Socialist-led government of Pedro Sanchez was deemed to not apply to the charge laid against Puigdemont, meaning any return to Spain was fraught with the risk of arrest.
However, it appears that Puigdemont has successfully eluded the police, who had vowed to arrest him upon his return.
