The Mossos d’Esquadra, the regional police force in the Spanish region of Catalonia, claimed in a report that their operation to capture and detain fugitive separatist leader Carles Puigdemont had failed due to “technical and formal errors.” They also admitted that three officers were arrested for allegedly participating in Puigdemont’s escape.
The report was turned in last week to judge Pablo Llarent of the Spanish supreme court. It says that Puigdemont, who had returned to give a speech in central Barcelona after years in exile, managed to create a situation of confusion and uncertainty “that distracted police” and facilitated his escape. This included an orchestrated “deception,” as police had not considered it “a possibility” that he would flee so quickly and make only a short public appearance.
They had expected that after his speech he would head to the regional parliament building. He had promised to appear in parliament the day a regional president was elected by the chamber.
Puigdemont was regional president of Catalonia in 2017 and helped orchestrate the failed and illegal referendum on the region’s independence from Spain. He then fled to Belgium where he has remained a fugitive of Spanish justice since. While in Belgium, he was elected into the EU parliament in 2019. He is also still the president of Junts per Catalonia, a right-leaning Catalan separatist party which also holds seven seats in the national parliament and has played a key role in maintaining Spain’s current socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Puigdemont gave up a run for a second term as an MEP to run for president of Catalonia in regional elections held last May. But his and other separatist parties had disappointing results, ultimately leaving the regional government in the hands of Sánchez’s Socialist party. As promised, Puigdemont returned to Spain on August 8, the day the Catalan parliament elected socialist Salvador Illa as the regional president. After giving a five-minute speech in Barcelona, Puigdemont again escaped to Belgium, slipping through a police operation that had closed off the city.
Judge Llarent had demanded from the Catalan police and the Ministry of the Interior an account of why they were unable to capture Puigdemont.
The report, signed by Eduard Sallent, chief of the Mossos d’Esquadra, states that the police did not have time to react, particularly since the distraction created by Puigdemont’s inner circle was unwittingly helped by the crowd of about 3,000 people that had gathered for Puiugdemont’s speech.
The forces on the ground and in the air—the operation included both plainclothes officers in the street and various forms of air support such as drones—lost track of Puigdemont after his speech and as he escaped from the city in a white car. The crowds headed toward parliament after Puigdemont finished speaking but police missed the fact that Puigdemont’s car did not go in the same direction, instead leaving the city with the fugitive inside.
According to the report, the aerial drone that the Mossos d’Esquadra used to follow Puigdemont stopped focusing on his car, instead turning its attention to the crowds.
The report thus concludes that the events took place very quickly and Puigdemont escaped “thanks to a distraction maneuver carried out with the involuntary cooperation of thousands of people and the organized activity of a group of close collaborators.”
