Fugitive Catalan separatist leader Puigdemont back in Belgium after brush with Spanish authorities

Aug. 9 (UPI) -- The fugitive former separatist leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, was safely back in Belgium on Friday, his allies said.

The secretary of Puigdemont's Junts Party, Jordi Turull, said the former Catalan President was now back in Belgium where he lives after spending the night in France.

Turull told Catalan-language radio that he could confirm Puigdemont was in Brussels but could not say if he had gone back to his home in Waterloo, 10 miles south of the capital.

Puigdemont's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, also said his client -- who has been living in exile in Brussels for most of the time since being charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in 2017 -- had left Spain and would never turn himself in .

Police in the semi-autonomous region launched a major manhunt setting up roadblocks on roads out of Barcelona and stopping vehicles near the French border in a bid to capture Puigdemont on Thursday after he vanished from under their noses after delivering a short speech.

Turull said Puigdemont arrived Tuesday ahead of his appearance in front of a crowd of about 3,500 people near the Catalan parliament where the new Catalan president, Salvador Illa, was being sworn in Thursday morning.

Puigdemont, who fled abroad in 2017 after being removed from office for declaring independence after winning a referendum Spain's constitutional court had ruled was illegal -- told supporters he wanted to let them know the nationalist movement had not gone away.

"We are still here because we do not have the right to resign," he said. "Holding a referendum is not a crime and never will be."

Puigdemont's escape, after his return was widely reported in the media and on social media, sparked a row among different security and judicial agencies with each blaming the other for allowing him to slip through their fingers.

The Mossos d'Esquadra, the region's state police, confirmed Friday that two of its serving officers have been arrested on suspicion of aiding Puigdemont's escape. One is alleged to be the owner of a car that Puigdemont used to escape.

Chief commissioner Eduard Sallent told a press conference he did not know where Puigdemont was but the plan had been to arrest him "in the most suitable place."

He added that it was "possible that other Mossos helped him in his escape" stressing all those involved would face appropriate administrative and criminal sanctions.

Sallent rejected accusations of collusion saying Puigdemont "took advantage of the numbers of people around him and fled the scene in a vehicle that the Mossos tried to stop but failed."

"The responsibility of the operation was of the Mossos d'Esquadra, which is the integral police with competences in security in Catalonia, and specifically in judicial policing," a Spanish Interior ministry official told Politico.

Jupol, the country's main police union, condemned the debacle as "a scandal," calling it "an unacceptable dereliction of duty," while the Unified Police Union called for Mossos d'Esquadra to be taken off the case and for the National Police Force and Civil Guard to take over.

Supreme Court Justice Pablo Llarena, who issued Puigdemont's original warrant, demanded answers from the interior ministry over its failure to stop him at the border.

But Justice Minister Felix Bolanos hit back saying that as the law enforcement authority of Catalonia, it was Mossos' responsibility.

Mossos director-general Pere Ferrer said the state police had been placed "in a situation they do not deserve" and that blaming them for "unresolved political problems is bad business."