Puigdemont said to be in Belgium as Spanish police try to explain how he escaped

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was back in Belgium on Friday, his lawyer said, after he evaded arrest in Spain for the second time in seven years with a dramatic dash into a getaway car following a public appearance in Barcelona.

Puigdemont made a much-anticipated return to Spain this week despite a pending arrest warrant against him for his role in a 2017 independence referendum deemed illegal by Spanish courts.

In an astonishing turn of events, he disappeared shortly after speaking on Thursday to hundreds of supporters in central Barcelona under the eyes of almost as many journalists and police officers who had intended to arrest him after the speech.

The heads of Catalonia’s regional police, which had deployed 500 officers in preparation for the fugitive’s pre-announced return, defended their actions following the failure to catch Puigdemont and said an investigation had been launched to look into what went wrong.

Joan Ignasi Elena, the acting head of Catalonia’s interior department, which oversees the regional Mossos D’Esquadra police, defended the force and criticised Puigdemont.

“We didn’t expect such inappropriate behaviour from someone who has been the first authority of (Catalonia),” Mr Elena told journalists during a two-and-a-half hour press conference.

Mossos chief Eduard Sallent said the large crowd and the presence of local dignitaries, including the president of the Catalan parliament, escorting Puigdemont as he arrived to give his speech made it difficult to detain him at that moment.

Police expected he would then march to the Catalan parliament – as had been publicly announced by Puigdemont himself as well as an announcer talking to the crowd on loudspeakers.

Police hoped to have a better opportunity to execute the arrest warrant there.

Instead, the Catalan leader rushed off the stage, into an adjacent tent where he put on a straw hat like many of his supporters were wearing and quickly got into a white car that had been waiting for him.

Police chased the car but then lost track of him, Mr Sallent explained.

Two police officers were detained for their involvement in the escape, including one whose car was used by Puigdemont to flee.

One of them has since been released.

The white car used by Puigdemont to flee carried a wheelchair in the front seat, allegedly to facilitate parking in disabled spots, police said.

Puigdemont had announced on Wednesday that he planned to return to Spain.

But Jordi Turull, a fellow separatist and member of Puigdemont’s legal team, told Catalan radio that Puigdemont had in fact been in Barcelona since Tuesday.

Mr Turull was in the car with Puigdemont when he fled, police said.

Gonzalo Boye, Puigdemont’s chief lawyer, told The Associated Press (AP) his client was back in the Belgian town of Waterloo on Friday.

An AP journalist who rang the doorbell of the house that had been Puigdemont’s residence was told the Catalan politician was not there.

Mr Elena, the head of the interior department of Catalonia who is also a member of the left-wing separatist Esquerra Republicana (ERC) party, questioned the purpose of Puigdemont’s “show”.

He said: “What he did yesterday, what does it add? A farce, revenge … what does it bring to the independence movement?”

Puigdemont’s first escape from Spain in 2017 became the stuff of legend among his followers, and a huge source of embarrassment for Spanish law enforcement.

Earlier this year, Puigdemont denied that he had hidden in a car boot to avoid detection while slipping across the border in 2017 after the referendum.

The subsequent legal crackdown landed several of his cohorts in prison until Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government pardoned them.