BERLIN: German police on Sunday arrested Catalonia’s former president Carles Puigdemont as he crossed the border with Denmark by car, after Spain’s Supreme Court vowed to prosecute key separatists over their breakaway bid.

The arrest puts the fate of Puig­demont in the hands of German courts, which would have to decide whether to hand him over to Spa­nish authorities to face charges of “rebellion and misuse of public funds”.

Puigdemont “was arrested today at 11:19am by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force,” a German police spokesman said, adding that the detention was based on a Eur­opean warrant. “He is now in pol­ice custody”, added the spokesman.

Puigdemont’s arrest is the latest chapter in a secession saga that has bitterly divided Catalans and triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

It also came two days after Spain’s supreme court said it would prosecute for “rebellion” 13 Catalan separatists, including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull, over their role in the region’s failed bid for independence.

If found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison. Twelve more face less serious charges such as disobedience.

Issuing an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont on Friday, Judge Pablo Llarena accused the ousted Catalan leader of organising an independence referendum in October last year despite a ban from Madrid and “grave risk of violent incidents”.

The vote had been swiftly followed by the Catalan parliament’s declaration of independence on October 27. As Spanish authorities moved in to impose direct rule over the region, Puigdemont and four other deputies subsequently fled to Belgium. While separatist parties won Catalonia’s regional elections in December called by Madrid, they have been unable to form a government for the region as they chose candidates who are either in exile or in jail or facing prosecution over the separatist drive.

Puigdemont who had run in December’s polls from Belgium announced in March that he was abandoning his bid to return as regional president, as he faced arrest if he returned to Spain.

He had been visiting Finland since Thursday, but slipped out of the Nordic country before Finnish police could detain him on the warrant issued Friday.

Separately confirming his arrest in Germany, Puigdemont’s party spokeswoman Anna Grabalosa said: “It happened as he crossed the Danish-German border. He was treated well and all his lawyers are there. That is all I can say.” Puigde­mont’s lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevi­llas, said on Twitter that the ex-Catalan leader was picked up by German police as he was travelling back to Belgium to “present himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian courts”.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2018