Three Mossos officers suspended following Puigdemont's escape from Spain

Three police officers of the Mossos d’Esquadra, the regional force in Catalonia, have been suspended over their alleged role in facilitating the escape of the fugitive and former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, after he appeared earlier this month at a Barcelona rally, authorities said on Monday.

Puigdemont, who fled abroad after leading a failed 2017 independence bid for Catalonia, defied an arrest warrant to return to Spain to appear at a rally in Barcelona on 8 August near the Catalan Parliament. ALSO READ: Catalan police acknowledge errors in failed plan to detain Carles Puigdemont.

He delivered a brief speech to thousands of people before slipping away, prompting police to set up roadblocks in a failed bid to find him. ALSO READ: Catalan police fail to detain Puigdemont, despite him giving public speech in Barcelona.

The 61-year-old announced the following day that he had returned to Belgium, where he has lived for most of the bulk of the last seven years.

Three officers from the Mossos police force were detained on suspicion of helping Puigdemont escape, including one who allegedly owned the car he had used to leave the scene. They were later released after testifying before a judge. ALSO READ: With Puigdemont back in Belgium, recriminations fly between Supreme Court and Mossos.

The chief commissioner of the Mossos, Eduard Sallent (main image), had heavily criticised the three officers in a press conference the day after Puigdemont’s escape, saying they did not deserve to wear the uniform of the force.

They have been suspended from their duties without pay while their alleged roles in Puigdemont’s escape are investigated, a spokeswoman for the force said on Monday.

‘This is a provisional measure,’ she said.

Puigdemont led Catalonia’s regional government in 2017, when it pressed ahead with an independence referendum despite a court ban which was followed by a short-lived declaration of independence that sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Spain’s parliament passed a controversial amnesty law in May for those involved in the secession bid, but the Supreme Court ruled on 1 July that the measure would not fully apply to Puigdemont. ALSO READ: Controversial Catalan amnesty law gets final approval in Spanish Congress.

ALSO READ: A new era in Catalonia, as socialist Salvador Illa is elected president.

Click here for all our reports related to Catalan independence.

Sign up for the FREE Weekly Newsletter from Spain in English.

Click here for the latest Spain in English Special Wine Club Offer.

Please support Spain in English with a donation.

Click here to get your business activity or services listed on our DIRECTORY.

Click here for further details on how to ADVERTISE with us.