Politics
14:55, 26-Mar-2018
Puigdemont court appearance in Germany triggers protests in Catalan
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Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is to appear in court today following his arrest in Germany which triggered a wave of protests in Catalonia where thousands of separatists faced off with police.
German police arrested Puigdemont yesterday, after he crossed the border from Denmark, under a European warrant issued by Spain.
The arrest comes five months after Puigdemont went on the run as Spanish prosecutors sought to charge him with sedition and rebellion in the wake of a vote by the Catalan parliament to declare independence.
According to his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, he was on his way to Belgium, where he fled after Spanish authorities moved to impose direct rule over Catalonia.
Puigdemont will be brought before a German judge today to confirm his identity and a court will then decide if he is to remain in custody pending extradition proceedings.
Clashes erupted as protesters took to the streets in Catalonia on Sunday following his arrest.
Hours after Puigdemont was detained in Germany, a spokesman from Police Scotland said one of them, Clara Ponsati, who has since gone to Scotland and is wanted for both rebellion and misuse of public funds, was "making arrangements" to surrender to authorities there.
Puigdemont had been visiting Finland since Thursday, but slipped out of the Nordic country before Finnish police could detain him.
Elsa Artadi, a lawmaker with Puigdemont's Together for Catalonia party, said that he should fight his extradition.
"Spain does not guarantee a fair trial; only revenge and repression," she wrote on Twitter.
"What they are doing these days is totally disproportionate, we are being treated like criminals for wanting independence," Rosa Vela, a 60-year-old teacher, told AFP at the protest in Barcelona.
(Top image: Video cameras are set up outside the prison in Neumuenster, Germany, March 26, 2018, after former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained on Sunday in Germany. /VCG Photo)
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Source(s): AFP