Spain issues arrest warrant for ousted Catalan leader

Dismissed Catalonia's leader Carles Puigdemont walks past Spanish flag as he arrives to address a press conference at The Press Club in Brussels. (NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/BELGA/AFP)

Puigdemont, dismissed last week as Catalan president by the Spanish government and who has since been holed up in Belgium, would fight an eventual bid to extradite him, his lawyer Paul Bekaert told the VRT channel.

"I have just received word from my client that indeed it (the warrant) has been issued against the president and four other ministers who are in Belgium," Bekaert said.

"Practically it means that the Spanish judiciary will now send an extradition request to federal prosecutors in Brussels," he said.

Asked if Puigdemont will remain in Belgium, Bekaert said: "Of course. He has pledged his full cooperation with the Belgian authorities."

Bekaert said his client would appeal should an extradition request be approved by a Belgian judge.

During Spain's biggest crisis in decades, judge Carmen Lamela earlier had Puigdemont's deputy and seven other deposed regional ministers detained pending a potential trial for alleged sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds.

In another day of high drama in Spain's biggest crisis in decades, judge Carmen Lamela had Puigdemont's deputy Oriol Junqueras and seven other deposed regional ministers detained pending a potential trial for alleged sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds.

With television channels showing images of police vans with flashing blue lights said to be taking the former ministers to different prisons, Catalans took to the streets in anger and disbelief.

There were protests in front of the Catalan parliament in Barcelona, the regional capital, with police estimating a crowd of 20,000. Others gathered outside town halls across the region including 8,000 people in both Girona and Tarragona.

Those in Barcelona held up their mobile phones like candles and waved separatist flags - red and yellow stripes with a white star - also holding black-and-yellow "libertad" ("freedom") signs.

The crowds, who included elderly couples and young parents carrying toddlers, chanted "Free political prisoners" and "This isn't justice but dictatorship."

"It makes you angry even when you don't vote for independence because every time a disproportionate measure is taken, it only fuels independence," said retired teacher Dolores, 66.

Puigdemont called in a statement broadcast on Catalan TV from an undisclosed location for the release of the ministers and said that the situation "is no longer an internal Spanish affair".

"The international community, and especially the European community, must realise the danger these attitudes represent," he said.

FLIGHT RISK

A total of 20 people including Puigdemont, Junqueras and the speaker of the Catalan regional parliament had been summoned for questioning on Thursday.

A hearing of the speaker of Catalan's parliament and five others at the Supreme Court was adjourned until Nov 9 after their lawyers requested more time to prepare their defence.

Puigdemont and four others thought to be with him in Belgium failed to show and judge Lamela was widely expected to issue an EU arrest warrant for them, but it was unclear when.

In her ruling, Lamela said she had ordered preventive detention because of a possible flight risk, given Puigdemont's departure.

"Let's remember that some of the defendants have already gone to other countries, dodging possible penal responsibilities," she wrote.

A ninth former minister, who resigned last Friday, was also remanded in custody but will be set free if he pays bail of €50,000 (US$58,000).

INDEPENDENCE DRIVE

Catalan demands for independence date back centuries but have surged in recent years, in part due to a difficult economic situation.

Puigdemont's government organised an independence referendum on Oct 1 despite a court ban.

Spanish police tried and failed to stop it, in some cases firing rubber bullets at people defending polling stations.

A declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament followed last Friday.

But that same day, Rajoy dismissed the regional government, imposing direct rule on Catalonia and called regional elections for Dec 21.

'FAILED STATE'

Marta Rovira, a lawyer and Catalan separatist lawmaker, briefly broke down in tears as she spoke to reporters in Madrid after the announcement of the detentions.

"The Spanish state is a failed state, a state that has failed democratically," she said. "I'm convinced we won't surrender, we won't, we will fight until the end."

But Catalans, fiercely proud of their language and culture, remain deeply divided about independence, polls indicate.

The European Union has swung firmly behind Rajoy. Spain's central bank warned Thursday of a possible recession in Catalonia if the crisis continues.

In addition, there are signs of growing divisions in the separatist camp, with many unhappy with Puigdemont, particularly now he is hundreds of miles away from the region he hopes to lead to independence.