Fugitive Catalan ex-leader returns to Spain and vanishes again

BARCELONA

Carles Puigdemont, the former leader of Catalonia who fled Spain over his role in a failed 2017 independence bid for the wealthy region, returned to Spain on Thursday after seven years on the run despite a pending arrest warrant but promptly disappeared again.

Puigdemont shouted "Long live a free Catalonia!" as he climbed onto a stage in Barcelona to address thousands gathered near the Catalan regional parliament, which was set to elect a new leader later in the day.

"I have come here to remind you that we are still here," he said as many in the crowd waved red, yellow and blue Catalan independence flags.

After his brief address, Puigdemont appeared to head towards the nearby Catalan parliament but the assembly began an investiture vote to pick a new leader for the region without him being present.

It was not immediately clear where he was.

Police had set up roadblocks in Barcelona and were searching cars to try to find Puigdemont, according to Spanish media reports.

Puigdemont led the regional government of Catalonia in 2017, when it pushed ahead with an independence referendum despite a court ban, followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.

He fled Spain shortly after the independence bid to avoid prosecution and has since lived in Belgium and more recently France.

While Spain's parliament in May passed an amnesty law for those involved in the botched secession bid, the Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that the measure would not fully apply to Puigdemont.

"A country that has an amnesty law and does not apply it, has a problem with democracy," he said in his speech.