Carles Puigdemont defied an arrest warrant issued for him in Spain on Thursday while visiting Barcelona.
Catalan separatist leader living in self-imposed exile Carles Puigdemont said on Saturday that he had no intention of surrendering to the authorities when he was arrested in Spain earlier this week.
– I had no intention of surrendering to judicial authorities who are not qualified to accuse us or interpret the law. They act on political grounds, Puigdemont said in a video he published on the messaging service X.
Puigdemont defied the arrest warrant issued for him on Thursday. He said that he wanted to participate in the Catalan regional government’s vote for a new regional leader. However, he fled after giving a speech outside parliament in Barcelona.
Puigdemont said he had already returned to his home in Waterloo, Belgium.
In May, the Spanish parliament approved a law granting amnesty to those who participated in the 2017 Catalan independence project. However, the Supreme Court decided at the beginning of July that the amnesty does not fully apply to Puigdemont.