Update | Spain issues arrest warrant for sacked Catalan president as eight of his ministers are jailed
Carles Puigdemont, who is in Belgium, will not return to Spain to face trial over independence bid says his lawyer
A Spanish judge has issued an arrest warrant for ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, his lawyer told Belgian state broadcaster VRT on Thursday, after eight of his separatist ex-ministers were ordered jailed pending trial over the region’s ill-fated independence push.
“I have just heard from my client that the warrant has been issued for the president and four of his ministers who are in Belgium,” lawyer Paul Bekaert told VRT.
Catalan political parties and civic groups denounced the court’s decision to “jail the legitimate government of Catalonia” and hundreds of people gathered outside the Catalan regional parliament calling for the eight ministers to be freed.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Puigdemont and his government on Friday, hours after the Catalan parliament made a unilateral declaration of independence – a vote boycotted by the opposition and declared illegal by Spanish courts.