Carles Puigdemont no longer in Spain and will not give himself up, lawyer says

Fugitive Catalan separatist has returned to Belgium after flying visit to Barcelona in which police failed to arrest him

Carles Puigdemont is no longer in Spain and will never give himself up, his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, said after the fugitive former Catalan president’s dramatic flying visit to Barcelona on Thursday.

Lluís Llach, a Catalan singer and fervent nationalist, said that Puigdemont was “safe and sound and above all, free” while Jordi Turull, the secretary-general of Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia party, said he had returned home to Waterloo in Belgium, adding that before his public appearance on Thursday Puigdemont had arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday evening.