Spain explains failure to arrest fugitive leader Puigdemont

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain’s Interior Ministry submitted a statement to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, explaining how authorities dropped the ball on arresting fugitive leader Carles Puigdemont during his public appearance in Barcelona last week.

Puigdemont, who hadn’t been in Spain, at least publicly, since he fled in 2017 after leading a failed independence push, held a televised rally on Thursday despite an active arrest warrant against him.

But despite Puigdemont’s pre-programmed speech, he managed to slip out of Spain before he was arrested.

In the statement, solicited by Spain’s Supreme Court, Spain’s Interior Ministry said it had offered to help the Catalan police with the operation to arrest him in Barcelona. However, the Catalan police did not require their services.

At the same time, Spanish officials said the law ensures that the Catalan police have autonomy, so it did not set up a parallel operation to arrest Puigdemont, despite the public knowledge that he would be speaking at a rally.

However, the Interior Ministry said it did deploy Spanish police as soon as they saw Puigdemont was fleeing once again.

For 24 hours following his disappearance, Spanish police also reinforced the surveillance of ports and airports and set up stops on some roads that were not under the responsibility of the Catalan police, according to the statement.

Before Puigdemont’s planned rally, Spanish authorities were also monitoring the border with France, ports and airports, but failed to detect the fugitive politician.

The statement added that EU law, which ensures the free circulation between the border of France and Spain, made it difficult for “any police operation to guarantee impermeability,” no matter what information was available.

Jordi Turull, secretary-general of Puigdemont’s political party Junts per Catalunya, told RAC1 that the fugitive leader had been in Barcelona since Tuesday.

By Friday, Puigdemont had confirmed his return to his home in Waterloo, Belgium.

The same day, the Catalan police justified their role in the fiasco, saying they planned to arrest him somewhere more suitable than on stage at the rally.

Three Catalan police officers were detained on suspicion of having helped him stage his escape. They have been released on bail, according to broadcaster Cadena Ser.

“Neither the Catalan police nor anyone else was prepared for such improper behavior,” Catalan Interior Minister Joan Ignasi Elena said during a press conference on Friday.

On Monday, the leader of Spain’s conservative opposition party Alberto Nunez Feijoo accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of “allowing” Puigdemont to embarrass Spain and escape.

Although Spain’s progressive government passed an amnesty law that aimed to pave the way for Puigdemont’s legal return, the Interior Ministry insisted that he remains a target.

While the former Catalan president has been pardoned of some charges under the amnesty law, the Supreme Court ruled that the embezzlement charge against him must remain.

The Supreme Court decision is still being challenged in the Constitutional Court.