Ben Pawlowski
THE Mossos d’Esquadra have admitted that ‘mistakes’ were made in their plan to arrest Carles Puigdemont after the former Catalan president successfully fled Spain once again after making a brief speech in Barcelona city centre earlier this month.
According to a leaked report sent between Catalunya’s regional police force and the Spanish Supreme Court, a police aerial drone that was following Puigdemont turned away at the crucial moment of his escape by car, allowing him to return to his exiled residence of Waterloo, Belgium, without detection.
The controversial Catalan separatist leader has lived in exile ever since he fled Spain in the boot of a car seven years ago after the Spanish government launched criminal charges against him for his role in the 2017 independence push.
As regional president, Puigdemont organised a botched independence referendum, which was deemed illegal, and unilaterally declared Catalunya as an independent state, provoking Spain’s most significant political crisis since the Franco dictatorship.
Earlier this month, Puigdemont returned to Barcelona for the first time since 2017 in an attempt to disrupt the investiture debate of Salvador Illa, a Socialist ally of Prime Minister who became the region’s first pro-unity president in 14 years.
READ MORE: Carles Puigdemont latest: Mossos police chiefs to be quizzed over exiled leader’s ‘humiliating’ escape from Barcelona
Flanked by members of his separatist Junts per Catalunya party, Puigdemont gave a brief speech to 3,500 pro-independence supporters outside the parliament building before quickly disappearing, prompting local police to launch ‘Operation Cage’ in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent the fugitive’s escape.
Puigdemont remains subject to an arrest warrant regarding the alleged embezzlement of public funds whilst he was regional premier, with a highly controversial amnesty law passed earlier this year by Sanchez’s government deemed not to apply to the Junts leader following a court ruling.
The leaked 25-page report, sent to Pablo Llarena after the judge requested an explanation from the Mossos regarding the failure to arrest Puigdemont, has revealed a litany of errors which allowed him and his entourage to escape.
The police have admitted that their entire operation was based on the assumption that Puigdemont would head to the parliament building and voluntarily surrender, either before or after the investiture vote was taken in an attempt to disrupt proceedings.
READ MORE: Socialist leader Salvador Illa elected as President of Catalunya following investiture debate overshadowed by police manhunt for Carles Puigdemont
As such, the Mossos stationed hundreds of officers inside the parliament building, but left just one plain-clothes officer among the thousands of pro-independence supporters who had gathered to hear Puigdemont’s speech.
The Mossos’ aerial drone, assuming that Puigdemont would head to parliament, followed a large group of supporters and politicians heading towards the building located in the Parc de la Ciutadella.
However, Puigdemont used this distraction to escape in a white vehicle, allegedly organised by three off-duty Mossos officers sympathetic to the pro-independence cause who have since been arrested and suspended by the police force.
Although the plain-clothes officer had seen Puigdemont escape, they were unable to contact others after their radio failed, and mistakenly reported the getaway vehicle as a white Peugeot, when in reality it was a white Honda.
In conclusion, the report stated that Puigdemont’s escape took place ‘thanks to a diversionary manoeuvre developed with the involuntary co-operation of thousands of people and the organised activity of a group of close collaborators’.
The dramatic escape provoked embarrassment for the Mossos and Pedro Sanchez’s government, and hit the headlines across the world.
