Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont has returned to Belgium, according to his relatives

The stay was brief. After appearing in Barcelona on Thursday 8th August, Carles Puigdemont is now “out” from Spain and left again “towards Waterloo”, in Belgium, his lawyer and the secretary general of his party told Catalan radio Rac1 on Friday. Jordi Turull, the secretary general of Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia), said he did not know whether Carles Puigdemont had already arrived in the Belgian city near Brussels, where he spent most of his seven years in exile.

He assured that this express return to Catalonia and this new flight abroad was not the plan originally envisaged. “The first scenario envisaged was that he could return to benefit (…) from the amnesty law,” he explained.

Despite the amnesty law negotiated by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in exchange for support for his government from Carles Puigdemont’s party, the latter is still wanted by the Spanish justice system for his role in the failed secession attempt of 2017. Highly criticized by the opposition, this amnesty law is at the heart of multiple legal debates. On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that it only applied to some of the crimes charged against the pro-independence leader.