The exiled former Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, has fled Spain to avoid a major police manhunt, his party has announced.
Spanish authorities launched a massive manhunt on Thursday after he made a surprise return to Spain and vanished after giving a short speech to a crowd in Barcelona.
The 61-year-old is wanted by Spain on charges related to the failed 2017 Catalan independence movement.
Puigdemont is now back in Belgium, where he lives, after a tumultuous 24 hours on the run, the party’s secretary-general, Jordi Turul, announced on Friday.
In 2017, Catalan separatist leaders, including Puigdemont, held a referendum that was ruled illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court and later declared the region independent.
Soon after, Madrid imposed direct rule over the region, and Puigdemont fled to Belgium.
He has lived in Brussels for most of the past few years.
Puigdemont returned to the country after seven years in exile and gave a short speech to several hundred supporters gathered near the Catalan parliament in Barcelona.
“Long live a free Catalonia!” he told supporters and international journalists on Thursday, before saying he was returning home “to remind you that we are still here”.
“Holding a referendum is not a crime and will never be a crime,” Petitdemont added, before quickly disappearing.
Speaking in an interview with RAC1 radio station on Friday, Turul said he knew the former Catalan leader was in Brussels but could not confirm whether he had returned to his home in the city of Waterloo.
Eduardo Salento, head of Catalonia’s regional police, Mossos d’Esquadra, told reporters on Friday he had no information about Puigdemont’s whereabouts and planned to arrest him in the “most appropriate place.”
The police chief confirmed that two officers had been detained on suspicion of helping Puigdemont escape, adding that “it is possible that other officers may have assisted him in his escape” and that police would follow the appropriate criminal and administrative procedures in each case.
Spanish media reported the car in which Puigdemont fled after the speech was believed to belong to one of the officers, and police have denied any collusion with the former leader.
Instead, he “took advantage of the large number of people in the vicinity and fled the scene in a vehicle that Mossos attempted unsuccessfully to stop,” the report states.
The party’s secretary general said Puigdemont had been in Barcelona since Tuesday and made a surprise appearance before Barcelona’s parliament on Thursday.
Turul said the former separatist leader had dinner in Barcelona on Tuesday night and spent the whole of Wednesday and Thursday in the area.
His arrival coincided with the election of socialist Salvador Illa as the new president of Catalonia.
Searches were launched, temporary checkpoints were set up around Barcelona and Spanish television showed footage from the French border municipality of La Jonquera showing police stopping cars and checking boots.
Catalan police are facing intense scrutiny from a Spanish Supreme Court judge, who wants them to explain how Puigdemont was able to escape.
Judge Pablo Llarena, who issued the arrest warrant for Puigdemont, also questioned the Spanish Interior Ministry about plans to arrest him at the border.
In documents made public by the Supreme Court, Llarena asked the ministry to explain what orders had been issued to detain him “after his flight.”
Justice Minister Felix Bolaños said on Friday that the search for Puigdemont was the responsibility of Mossos, Catalonia’s law enforcement agency.
But Mossos chief Pere Ferrer said Thursday’s incident had put police “in an unfair situation” and that “it’s not right to blame officers for unresolved political issues.”
