Riot police clashed with protesters on Sunday evening in Barcelona, hours after ex-Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was detained near the German-Danish border.

Around 55,000 pro-independence marchers took to the streets of the Catalan capital to show their support for the 55-year-old and to protest his arrest. A separate protest was held in Girona, where Mr Puigdemont served as mayor.

The situation in Barcelona escalated in the evening as protesters fought running battles with riot police. Local authorities reported dozens of injuries and many arrests. In videos posted on a Spanish news website, police used their batons and appeared to fire warning shots.

Mr Puigdemont was en route from Finland to Belgium, his self-imposed home-in-exile for the last five months, when he was detained shortly after 11am at an Autobahn petrol station near the northern town of Schleswig.

The separatist leader was in custody on Sunday night while German authorities weigh up a European arrest warrant (EWA) from Spain on charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement.

German media reports say Spanish intelligence tipped off German police that he had crossed the border from Denmark.

Berlin faces a political dilemma with uncomfortable historical overtones after the arrest on Sunday morning.

Mr Puigdemont is wanted in Spain on charges of rebellion and sedition arising from his role in organising an October referendum on Catalan independence. He faces a 30-year prison sentence if convicted.

News of the arrest in Germany caused uproar in Catalonia, which declared independence after a referendum dismissed as unconstitutional by Madrid, which then imposed direct rule.

On social media, Catalonians likened the detention of Mr Puigdemont to the arrest of leftist Catalan president Lluis Companys by the Gestapo. They extradited Mr Companys to Franco’s Spain in 1940, where he was held in solitary confinement, tortured and eventually executed by firing squad.

“If Germany collaborates with the Spanish authoritarian government,” wrote one Twitter user, “Europe will be dead.”

Spain reactivated its arrest warrant on Friday, while Mr Puigdemont was in Finland delivering a lecture. His attorney, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, said Mr Puigdemont had left Finland and was en route to Belgium “where he had intended to put himself, as always, at the disposal of the Belgian justice system”.

Ralph Döpper, deputy state prosecutor in Schleswig-Holstein, confirmed the politician was in police custody while authorities decided whether to act on the warrant.

He said the decision whether to extradite him to Spain, or release him, would probably come on Monday.

“We are at the start of the examination process,” said Mr Döpper.

He gave no information on how it came to the detention of Mr Puigdemont and four others, and how Autobahn police knew where to find them.

“We simply had the information that he was supposed to be in Germany or had entered the country,” he said.

The ex-politician is reportedly being held in a prison in the town of Neumünster, an hour north of Hamburg.

His detention has seriously ratcheted up tensions in Catalonia, where separatists hold a majority in the regional parliament after elections in December. They have failed to form a government and have abandoned plans to name a new president following the arrest of their latest candidate, Jordi Turull.

Mr Puigdemont had sought to be sworn in and rule from Belgium via video conference, but abandoned his bid on March 1st with “the greatest sadness”. In a video message he insisted he would not abandon the idea of setting up a government in exile.

“I will not throw in the towel. I will not quit. I will not give up in the face of the illegitimate behaviour of those who lost at the ballot box,” he said. In leaked private conversations with colleagues in Barcelona, however, he appeared to admit defeat and acknowledge that Madrid “has won”.

Under the rules of the EWA, active since 2004, a court in one EU member state can only extradite a person sought by another member state if they are confident the suspect will face equivalent fair legal procedures and trial.</s>BERLIN (AP) — German police say ex-Catalan fugitive Carles Puigdemont has been detained on a European arrest warrant.</s>BARCELONA, Spain -- Fugitive former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is being held by German police on a Spanish arrest warrant after trying to cross into Germany from Denmark.

Police in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein said highway police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday morning near the A7 highway that leads from Denmark into Germany.

They said "Mr. Puigdemont is currently in police custody" and refused to give further details.

His lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, confirmed to the Associated Press that German police stopped Puigdemont on Sunday when he was crossing the border. He says Puigdemont is at a police station.

Alonso-Cuevillas says Puigdemont was on his way back to Belgium where he has been staying since fleeing Spain following a failed bid by his regional government in October to declare independence from Spain.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians with rebellion Friday for their attempts to make the region independent of Spain, dealing a heavy blow to the secessionist movement. The judge ordered international arrest warrants for the six Catalan officials who are fugitives, including Puigdemont.

Puigdemont faces charges of rebellion and sedition in Spain that could lead to 30 years in prison, BBC News reports.</s>Puigdemont "was arrested today at 11:19 am by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force," a German police spokesman told AFP, adding that the detention was based on a European warrant.

"He is now in police custody," added the spokesman.

Puigdemont’s arrest came just 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 breakaway bid. If found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison.

Jordi Turull was detained on Friday along with five other leaders, sparking protests and clashes with police in Barcelona.

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

Puigdemont and four other deputies had fled to Belgium following their proclamation of independence for Catalonia in October, which sank the state into a crisis.

Spanish authorities have since imposed direct rule over the region, suspending the wealthy state’s autonomy over the last five months.

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 numerous leaders are in exile abroad or in jail.

Puigdemont himself had said from Belgium in early March that he was abandoning his bid to return as regional president, even though he had run in December’s polls from abroad.</s>Carles Puigdemont, the deposed Catalan president, was on Sunday detained by police at the German border after Spain reactivated an international warrant for his arrest on charges of rebellion over October’s referendum and declaration of independence.

Mr Puigdemont’s lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, said he was detained while crossing the border from Denmark by car on his way back to Belgium from Finland, where he had travelled to speak at an event.

"By now he is in a police station and his legal defence has already been activated," Mr Alonso-Cuevillas said.

The Spanish Supreme Court reissued European Arrest Warrants for Mr Puigdemont and four members of his former cabinet on Friday after charging 13 Catalan independence leaders with rebellion and misappropriation of funds.

The charges could see them jailed for up to 30 years. International arrest warrants were issued for two other separatist politicians, Ana Gabriel and Marta Rovira, who are currently in self-imposed exile in Switzerland.

If Mr Puigdemont does not consent to his extradition to Spain, the request will go before the German courts, a process for which he could be remanded in custody.</s>Lawyer says fugitive ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is being held by German police

MADRID (AP) — Lawyer says fugitive ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is being held by German police.</s>BERLIN - Catalonia's ousted president Carles Puigdemont is to appear before a judge on Monday after he was detained by German police on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain, prosecutors said Sunday.

"The sole purpose of this appearance is to verify the identity of the person arrested," the regional tribunal in the town of Schleswig said in a statement.

The court will then decide if Puigdemont will be formally taken into custody pending extradition proceedings, it added.

Judges "will establish on the basis of documents provided by the Kingdom of Spain... if Mr Puigdemont's transfer to the Spanish authorities is legally founded," the court said.

It added that the 55-year-old was currently in detention without providing further details.

German police arrested Puigdemont earlier on Sunday as he crossed over by car from Denmark, where had been visiting lawmakers.

Spain's supreme court announced Friday it would prosecute 13 Catalan separatists for "rebellion" including Puigdemont, for their role in the region's failed bid to break away from Madrid last year.

If found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison. Twelve more face less serious charges such as disobedience.</s>Carles Puigdemont, who led Catalonia's independence push before slipping into Belgium to evade rebellion charges, was detained by German police Sunday as he crossed into that country from Denmark, according to a tweet from his lawyer.

Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said Catalonia's former president was on his way back to Belgium from Finland, where he had been meeting with lawmakers, when police stopped him on a European arrest warrant.

Puigdemont faces up to 30 years prison time in Spain for heading an illegal independence referendum in October.

Violence erupted during the vote, "Horrible scenes," as NPR's Lauren Frayer reported from Barcelona at the time, "Police dragging voters out of polling stations, some by the hair."

Catalonia declared independence, but Madrid stepped in dissolving the regional government and Puigdemont fled to Belgium where he has been living with his family for the past five months.

His arrest Sunday caps a tense weekend in Catalonia after Spain's Supreme Court ruled Friday that 25 Catalan leaders should stand trial on secession-related charges, carrying sentences of up to three decades behind bars.

Five politicians who responded to a court summons found themselves jailed, reports The New York Times.

People took to the streets in Catalonia, sometimes clashing with police, in protests that carried on through the weekend.

The judge also issued a new international arrest warrant for Puigdemont Friday, making him a wanted man across Europe once again, after his prior extradition order was lifted in December. (A national arrest warrant has been in effect since November, meaning Puigdemont has not been free to step foot back on Spanish soil.)

Puigdemont was in Finland Friday when he learned Finnish police could be preparing to arrest him.

Finnish member of Parliament Mikko Kärnä, who had been meeting with Puigdemont, said Saturday that the deposed leader opted to leave the country for Belgium rather than turn himself over to Finnish police.

A Spanish police official told The Associated Press that its intelligence services worked with German police to orchestrate Puigdemont's arrest.

Like Puigdemont, other politicians facing charges have left Spain to live in self-exile.

Catalan parliament member and lawyer Marta Rovira fled to Switzerland rather than appear in court Friday, according to the Times. She said in an open letter Friday, "Exile will be a tough road, but it is the only way I have to recover my political voice."

Friday's indictment is another major snag for Catalonia's long-running secessionist movement, as much of its political elite is facing decades behind bars.

It is up to Germany as to whether Puigdemont will be extradited.</s>BERLIN (Reuters) - German police said on Sunday they had arrested former Catalan secessionist leader Carles Puigdemont in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

In a statement, police said Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border. Police did not say exactly where Puigdemont was being held.

 "Schleswig-Holstein police are at this point in time unable to provide more details," it said, other than that Puigdemont was taken into custody at 11:19 a.m. (0919 GMT).

 

 (Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mark Heinrich)</s>Catalonia's Puigdemont to be brought before judge in Germany

NEUMUENSTER, Germany (AP) — Catalonia's former president, Carles Puigdemont, was to be brought before a court in Germany on Monday for an initial hearing on whether he stays in custody, kicking off an extradition process that could take weeks.

The closed-doors hearing comes amid heightened tensions in the Spanish region following Puigdemont's arrest on a European warrant Sunday at a highway rest area south of the German-Danish border. Tens of thousands protested late Sunday in Barcelona and other Catalan towns, and some demonstrators clashed with riot police.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and misuse of public funds in organizing an unauthorized referendum on independence for Catalonia.

Prosecutors in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein wouldn't say where Monday's hearing would take place, and the timing also wasn't clear. The hearing will entail the court formally establishing Puigdemont's identity and determining whether he is kept in custody on a preliminary basis, said Wiebke Hoffelner, a spokeswoman for prosecutors.

The state court in Schleswig will decide at a later date whether to put Puigdemont in formal pre-extradition custody on the basis of documents provided by Spain. German government officials have stressed that the case is a matter for the judicial system, but declined to say Monday whether the government could ultimately overrule a court decision.

European rules call for a final decision on extradition within 60 days of the suspect's arrest, though a 30-day extension is possible, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Stephanie Krueger said.

German news agency dpa said Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the town of Neumuenster on Sunday.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

Spain originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation last week.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, in an effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont was reactivated on Friday, when he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatists who fled the country.

It wasn't immediately clear why Puigdemont wasn't arrested earlier in his trip from Finland to Belgium.

However, authorities examining a European arrest warrant need to check whether the offense a suspect is accused of committing is equivalent to a criminal offense in the country where he was arrested.

Germany's criminal code — unlike Belgium's — includes an offense that appears to be comparable to rebellion, the main accusation against Puigdemont. It calls for prison sentences for anyone who "undertakes, by force or through threat of force" to undermine the existence of the republic or change the constitutional order.

Puigdemont and other Catalan separatists argue that their movement has been entirely peaceful. Separatists condemned Sunday's street violence in Catalonia that led to 100 people, including 23 police agents, being treated for minor injuries.

German Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office was informed Friday about the arrest warrant and, in parallel, the office's liaison officer in Madrid was informed that Puigdemont might enter the country.

Schleswig-Holstein's state interior minister, Hans-Joachim Grote, told NDR television that four other people who were in the car with Puigdemont were taken to a police station and then released. He didn't identify them.

Dimroth said that, in "abstract terms," Puigdemont could seek asylum in Germany because anyone can file such a request, but added that he couldn't say anything about the likelihood of him being granted asylum or whether Puigdemont had made any such request.

Puigdemont's Belgian lawyer, Paul Bekaert, argued on VRT television that there was "flagrant abuse by Spain of the European arrest warrant for political purpose, which is totally illegal."

However, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in Berlin that "Spain is a democratic state of law."

"The German government remains convinced that this Catalonia conflict must be resolved within the Spanish legal and constitutional order," he said, noting Berlin's support for the "clear position" of the Spanish government in recent months.

Moulson reported from Berlin. Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
Catalonia's ex-President Carles Puigdemont is detained in Germany.