Catalan ex-leader's capture in Germany sparks mass protests

Five months after going on the run from Spanish authorities, Catalonia's former president was detained in Germany on an international warrant Sunday by highway police after the ardent separatist crossed the border with Denmark.

FILE - In this March 18, 2018 file photo Catalan's fugitive ex-president Carles Puigdemont, takes part in a panel titled "Self-Determination", at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, in Geneva, Switzerland.  (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, file)

Police block the street as people, one with a Catalan independence flag, shout slogans outside the Catalan parliament in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, March 24, 2018.  (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Carles Puigdemont's capture, aided by Spanish intelligence services, sparked protests of tens of thousands in Catalonia's main city of Barcelona and other towns in the wealthy northeastern corner of Spain. Some of the demonstrators clashed with riot police, leaving more than 50 civilians and police officers injured and leading to four arrests. Puigdemont will appear before a German judge on Monday.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 file photo, ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont stands with elected Catalan lawmakers of his Together for Catalonia party at a park in Brussels. The lawyer for fugitive former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says that he is being held by German police on Sunday March 25, 2018 when he was crossing the border to enter from Denmark. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2017 file photo ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont takes the podium at a gathering to watch the election results for Spain's Catalonia region at the Square Meeting Center in Brussels.  (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo,file)

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities that they say won't be lifted until a new government that respects Spain's Constitution is in place.

Spain's state prosecutor office said it was in contact with its German counterparts to carry out its request to extradite Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges including rebellion that could put him in prison for up to 30 years.

In Barcelona, riot police shoved and struck protesters with batons to keep an angry crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government's representative. Police vans showed stains of yellow paint reportedly thrown by protestors. Reinforcements were called in after several hours to clear the neighboring streets, with protestors tossing street barriers and burning two garbage bins as they retreated.

Outside the city center, groups of demonstrators cut off traffic on four different stretches of highways. Police also used batons to keep back a crowd of a few thousand who had gathered in front of the Spanish government's representative in the city of Lleida.

German highway police stopped Puigdemont on Sunday morning near the A7 highway that leads into Germany from Denmark, police in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein said.

FILE - In this July 5, 2011 file photo a truck passes the German-Danish border on highway A7 near Flensburg, Germany and Froslev, Denmark, The lawyer for fugitive former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says that he is being held by German police. (Bodo Marks/dpa via AP,file)

A van with tinted windows which is believed to transport Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, arrives at a prison in Neumuenster, northern Germany, Sunday, March 25, 2018. Puigdemont was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (Carsten Rehder/dpa via AP)

German news agency dpa said that Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the northern town of Neumuenster. Dpa photos showed a van with tinted windows believed to be carrying Puigdemont as it arrived at the prison. Video footage also showed the same van leaving a police station in Schuby near the A7 highway.

State prosecutors in Schleswig said that Puigdemont will appear in court Monday in the northern German town to confirm his identity. It said in a statement that "the question of whether Mr. Puigdemont has to be taken into extradition custody will then have to be determined by the higher regional court in Schleswig."

German state prosecutor Ralph Doepper told RTL Television that Puigdemont has been "provisionally detained. He has not been arrested."

The entrance building of a prison in Neumuenster, northern Germany, Sunday, March 25, 2018 where Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, is believed to be held after he was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (Carsten Rehder/dpa via AP)

Pro independence demonstrators march during a protest in support of Catalonian politicians who have been jailed on charges of sedition in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018. Puigdemont was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

"We are now examining the further procedure, i.e. tomorrow we will decide whether we will file a provisional application for detention with the competent district court, which could lead to extradition detention later on," Doepper said.

A Spanish police official told The Associated Press under customary condition of anonymity that Spain's National Center for Intelligence and police agents from its international cooperation division helped German police to locate Puigdemont.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge reactivated an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont on Friday when he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatist who fled the country.

Ines Arrimadas, the leader of the pro-Spain Citizens party which has the most seats in Catalonia's Parliament, said that the chaos on the streets was "of a society broken in two" by the secessionist movement.

Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers block the way to pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Emilio_Morenatti)

Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers stand amid smoke from a smoke bomb during clashes with pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018.  (AP Photo/Emilio_Morenatti)

Arrimadas said: "Puigdemont knew that fracturing Catalan society into two parts, spending public money on illegal activities, provoking a political and institutional crisis without precedents and confronting a 21st-century democracy of the European Union was going to have consequences."

But the Catalan parliament speaker, the highest-ranking elected official in the region until it forms a government, made a televised address on Catalan public television to call for a united "democratic front" of political parties, labor unions and civil society organizations to respond to what he called "the thirst for revenge of the powers of the state."

Speaker Roger Torrent accused Spain's central authorities of "attacking the heart of democracy making a general cause against its political adversaries."

Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers detain a man during clashes with pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Emilio_Morenatti)

Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers clash with pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018. Grassroots groups both for and against Catalan secession called for protests Sunday in Barcelona after Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant. (AP Photo/Emilio_Morenatti)

Miquel Coca, a business owner in Barcelona, likewise vowed that the secession push wouldn't falter.

"All the negative inputs that we have received help us to unite the society even more," Coca said. "If we can't have this leader, well, then there will be another. This is a movement of the people, not of one person."

Polls show Catalonia's 7.5 million residents are equally divided over secession, although a majority support holding a legal referendum on the issue.

Puigdemont, 55, is a former journalist and mayor of Girona who was thrust to the forefront of Catalonia's independence push when he was handpicked by predecessor Artur Mas to become regional president in 2016. He withstood intense political pressure from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Spain's courts as he piloted the secession bid.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week. Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers clash with pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018.  (AP Photo/Emilio_Morenatti)

Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers clash with pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

Puigdemont was also able to successfully run a campaign as the head of his "Together for Catalonia" bloc in a regional election in December in which separatist parties maintained their slim majority in Catalonia's regional parliament.

All told, Puigdemont has become enemy No. 1 of Rajoy's conservative government and Spain's justice system.

He had wanted to be re-elected as Catalonia's regional president — albeit while remaining abroad to avoid arrest — but eventually was stopped by a Spanish court.

Separatists in Catalonia are currently trying to elect a leader for the regional government before a two-month time limit is up and new elections are called.

Spain's Constitution says the nation is "indivisible" and any changes to its top law must be made by its national parliament in Madrid.

Nine people who promote Catalan secession have been placed in pre-trial custody to prevent what Llarena considered a flight risk or intention to continue with independence efforts.

Also, Spain's highest judicial authority condemned insults that appeared painted on the street near a house owned by Llarena in the Catalan town of Das. They called the Supreme Court judge a "fascist" and wrote the message that he is "not welcome in Das or anywhere."

Scottish police said Sunday that the lawyer of Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan regional minister also being sought by Spain, had been in contact and is preparing to be handed over to authorities. She had moved to Scotland from Belgium earlier this month.

NEW YORK (AP) — Police officials said they were reviewing whether to restrict access to a public park outside the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial after a man set himself on fire there Friday.

“We may have to shut this area down,” New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said at a news conference outside the courthouse, adding that officials would discuss the security plan soon.

Collect Pond Park has been a gathering spot for protesters, journalists and gawkers throughout Trump's trial, which began with jury selection Monday.

Crowds there have been small and largely orderly, but around 1:30 p.m. Friday a man there took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said.

A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed to the man's aid. He was hospitalized in critical condition Friday afternoon.

The man, who police said had traveled from Florida to New York in the last few days, hadn't breached any security checkpoints to get into the park. Through Friday, the streets and sidewalks in the area around the courthouse were generally wide open, though the side street where Trump enters and leaves the building is off limits.

People accessing the floor of the large courthouse where the trial is taking place have to pass through a pair of metal detectors.

Authorities said they were also reviewing the security protocols outside the courthouse.

“We are very concerned. Of course we are going to review our security protocols,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said.

White fire extinguisher residue marks the spot in Collect Pond Park where a man lit himself on fire outside Manhattan criminal court, Friday, April 19, 2024, in New York. Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after fire was extinguished outside the Manhattan courthouse where jury selection was taking place in former President Donald Trump's hush money criminal case. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

New York law enforcement and fire department personnel inspect the scene where a man lit himself on fire in a park outside Manhattan criminal court, Friday, April 19, 2024, in New York. Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after fire was extinguished outside the Manhattan courthouse where jury selection was taking place Friday in Donald Trump's hush money criminal case. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

A metal can sits on the ground at the scene where a man lit himself on fire in a park outside Manhattan criminal court, Friday, April 19, 2024, in New York. Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after fire was extinguished outside the Manhattan courthouse where jury selection was taking place Friday in Donald Trump's hush money criminal case. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)