President Puigdemont back in Belgium

The Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has returned to Brussels where he had been previously seeking refuge from the Spanish justice system prior to his detention in Germany.  The current president Quim Torra meet him at the Catalan government’s delegation to the European Union.
Mr Puigdemont left Catalonia last year after a declaration of independence leading to Spain’s Supreme Court prosecuting him and other individuals for the role they played in the country's push to become a republic.
He left Belgium to attend a conference in Finland, but was arrested upon his return in Germany, where he was briefly held in jail. Although he was later released with preventive measures, with a European arrest warrant hanging over his head, he could not leave the country until the German courts decided whether he should be extradited to Spain or not. He was wanted for rebellion and misuse of funds. By Spanish law, the crime of rebellion can carry up to 30 years behind bars.

After months of deliberation, the Schleswig-Holstein court in northern Germany court accepted the extradition request, but only for misuse of funds and not rebellion. Days later, however, the Spanish Supreme Court withdrew the European arrest warrant against Puigdemont and all other pro-independence leaders in exile. At the time, the deposed Catalan president criticized the move, stating that it was “evidence of the weakness” of Spain’s legal case.
Once he was able to move freely throughout Europe again, without setting foot in Spain where he would be arrested, sources close to Puigdemont already alluded to his intentions to return to Brussels. On Saturday morning, after four months in Germany, this was confirmed as he caught a Brussels Airlines flight from the port city of Hamburg back to the Belgian capital.