ILLEGAL REFERENDUM
Detained former Catalan leader faces extradition to Spain
Barcelona/Berlin — Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained on Sunday in Germany five months after going into self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organising an illegal referendum on secession in 2017. Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after leaving Finland on Friday when it appeared police would arrest him there and begin an extradition process requested by Spain. The detention threatens to worsen the Catalan crisis, which flared in 2017 when the region made a symbolic declaration of independence, prompting Madrid to take direct rule. Pro-independence groups called on Sunday for a protest in Barcelona in support of Puigdemont outside the offices of the delegation of the European Commission and the German consulate. German police said they had arrested Puigdemont in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. He had been detained near a section of the A7 highway near the Danish bor...
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