Twenty-four hours after Carles Puigdemont’s latest escape, who managed to escape from the Mossos d’Esquadra after giving a speech in front of more than 3,000 people in the centre of Barcelona, his entourage has revealed this Friday that the former president of the Generalitat is now safe from the police. Puigdemont has returned to Belgium, according to the secretary general of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull. In an interview on RAC1, Turull revealed that Puigdemont entered Spain a few days ago and that he had already dined last Tuesday in the Catalan capital.
Turull added that he accompanied Puigdemont on his escape from Barcelona aboard a car. The former Catalan president had repeatedly promised to be in the Parliament when the investiture debate was held, but the leader of the PSC Salvador Illa was chosen president this Thursday and the leader of Junts did not appear at the plenary session.
Turull has justified Puigdemont’s departure because, after giving his speech, he perceived that “a police deployment had been mounted that has not been seen in Catalonia with any terrorist or against the most serious criminals,” and he sensed that he would not be able to enter the Parliament to “exercise his political rights.” Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, has stated that the former Catalan president will give public explanations soon and maintains that “he has exceeded everyone’s expectations.”
The secretary general of Junts has revealed that Puigdemont aims to return to Waterloo and has been directly involved in the former president’s plan. He says that he accompanied him on his return to Catalonia. He does not specify when the trip took place, but he does reveal that they both had dinner together on Tuesday in Barcelona. Although Junts claims that Puigdemont is in Belgium, the Mossos d’Esquadra are keeping the operation active to arrest him in Catalonia, since there is no graphic evidence of what the party says.
Turull was sentenced to 12 years in prison in the trial for the process and, despite the subsequent pardon granted by the Government, his criminal record has not been expunged. He maintains that he does not fear any judicial consequences for his assistance to the leader of Junts. “I have not committed any crime,” he maintained. The Mossos have revealed that, like Puigdemont, he camouflaged himself among the crowd at the Barcelona event by putting on a straw hat so that he could discreetly reach the car that was prepared for the escape. Turull admits that he remained at Puigdemont’s side at all times and that he took precautions so that his mobile phone could not be traced until Thursday evening, already in French territory, when the former president continued his trip to Belgium and he stayed overnight in the south of France.
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Turull has summarised that, throughout Thursday, the former Catalan president was making decisions “as the day progressed” and that the new escape is a way of “confrontation”. Turull has criticised that the police operation to arrest Puigdemont “had no proportion or logic”. “He is not Hannibal Lecter”, he said.
The Department of the Interior of the Generalitat has specified that the security device in the surroundings of the Parliament was the ordinary one to protect an investiture debate and the announced return to Catalonia of a former presidentbut Turull has maintained that Puigdemont decided to escape because he perceived a police siege. Turull indicates that Puigdemont changed his idea of going to the Parliament when he saw the “aggressiveness” of the police operation.
Gonzalo Boye has stated that his client has achieved his stated objective: “What he had to do was show that he is not afraid of entering the State.”
The acting Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, has regretted that Puigdemont’s behaviour was “unbecoming of someone who has been the highest authority in the country”. The head of the Mossos, Commissioner Eduard Sallent, has questioned whether Puigdemont had any intention of going to the Parliament and has highlighted in a press conference that, in the Junts delegation that surrounded and helped him to reach the scene of Arc de Triomf, they perceived the will to “hinder” the actions of the Mossos agents.
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