BRUSSELS: Catalonia’s sacked separatist leader Carles Puigdemont and four of his former ministers turned themselves in to Belgian police on Sunday after Spain issued a warrant for their arrest.
The five, who face accusations of rebellion and sedition in Spain, are due to appear later Sunday before a judge who will decide within 24 hours whether to detain or release them.
It is the latest dramatic development in the crisis unleashed by the Catalan separatists’ push for independence from Spain that sent shock waves across Europe.
Puigdemont and his allies fled to Belgium last Monday after Spain sacked the Catalan executive and imposed direct rule on Madrid following the regional parliament’s declaration of independence last month.
“They were deprived of their liberty at 9.17 am (0817 GMT),” the Belgian prosecutor’s office said.
“We were in regular contact with the lawyers of the five people and they agreed to turn up at the police station,” prosecution spokesman Gilles Dejemeppe said.
“They honored that commitment.”
Only the five, their lawyer and an interpreter will be present at Sunday’s hearing.
Spain issued a warrant for their arrest on Friday after they failed to appear before a judge on claims of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds over the move to declare Catalonia an independent republic.
The judge in Madrid had on Thursday put Puigdemont’s deputy and seven other deposed regional ministers behind bars because of a risk that they would flee.
Puigdemont, 54, who insists that Catalonia earned the right to declare independence following a disputed referendum last month, had said Friday that he was willing to cooperate with Belgian authorities.
But he said he was not convinced by guarantees of a fair trial back home, denouncing the “enormous pressure and political influence on judicial power in Spain.”
The ousted Catalan leader, who still describes himself as “president,” has also said he is willing to run as a candidate in Catalonia’s December 21 snap election, which was organized after Madrid fired the region’s government over the independence declaration.
“We want president Puigdemont to be the person who leads the big offensive we will carry out on the 21st at the polls,” said Marta Pascal, spokeswoman for his PDeCAT party.
She said the conservative, pro-independence party was looking to put together a “big united list,” a day after Puigdemont himself called for separatists to unite in the election.
During the last regional election in September 2015, Puigdemont’s PDeCAT and the leftwing ERC party stood together in a “Together for Yes” coalition.
With the help of the separatist, far-left CUP party, they held an absolute majority in the Catalan parliament, which has since been dissolved after it declared independence last month.
But there have been growing tensions between the two allies over strategy and it is not clear if they will stand together again.
ERC leader Oriol Junqueras has been in custody since Thursday along with other members of Puigdemont’s dismissed government who did not flee to Belgium over their role in the independence drive.
Opinion polls published in several newspapers Sunday indicated that the ERC would come first in the December election, but that the independence coalition as a whole could lose its absolute majority.
Puigdemont’s party, meanwhile, would come fourth, the surveys suggest.
Puigdemont turns himself in to Belgian police
Puigdemont turns himself in to Belgian police
Junta leader Gen. Mamdi Doumbouya is declared winner of Guinea’s election, provisional results show
- Mamady Doumbouya took power in 2021 coup
CONAKRY, Guinea: Guinea coup leader Mamady Doumbouya has been elected president, according to provisional results announced on Tuesday, completing the return to civilian rule in the bauxite- and iron ore-rich West African nation.
The former special forces commander, thought to be in his early 40s, seized power in 2021, toppling then-President Alpha Conde, who had been in office since 2010. It was one in a series of nine coups that have reshaped politics in West and Central Africa since 2020.
The provisional results announced on Tuesday showed Doumbouya winning 86.72 percent of the December 28 vote, an absolute majority that allows him to avoid a runoff.
The Supreme Court has eight days to validate the results in the event of any challenge.
Doumbouya’s victory, which gives him a seven-year mandate, was widely expected. Conde and Cellou Dalein Diallo, Guinea’s longtime opposition leader, are in exile, which left Doumbouya to face a fragmented field of eight challengers.
Doumbouya reversed pledge not to run
The original post-coup charter in Guinea barred junta members from running in elections, but a constitution dropping those restrictions was passed in a September referendum.
Djenabou Toure, the country’s top election official who announced the results on Tuesday night, said turnout was 80,95 percent. However voter participation appeared tepid in the capital Conakry, and opposition politicians rejected a similarly high turnout figure for the September referendum.
Guinea holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves and the richest untapped iron ore deposit at Simandou, officially launched last month after years of delay.
Doumbouya has claimed credit for pushing the project forward and ensuring Guinea benefits from its output.
His government this year also revoked the license of Emirates Global Aluminium’s subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation following a refinery dispute, transferring the unit’s assets to a state-owned firm.
The turn toward resource nationalism — echoed in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — has boosted his popularity, as has his relative youth in a country where the median age is about 19.
Political space restricted, UN says
Political debate has been muted under Doumbouya. Civil society groups accuse his government of banning protests, curbing press freedom and restricting opposition activity.
The campaign period was “severely restricted, marked by intimidation of opposition actors, apparently politically motivated enforced disappearances, and constraints on media freedom,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week.
On Monday, opposition candidate Faya Lansana Millimono told a press conference the election was marred by “systematic fraudulent practices” and that observers were prevented from monitoring the voting and counting processes.
The government did not respond to a request for comment.
