Carles Puigdemont, Catalan Ex-Leader, Is Detained by German Police

Carles Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia who is wanted in Spain on sedition charges, was detained in Germany on Sunday after he crossed into the country from Denmark.

Mr. Puigdemont’s lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, said in a post on Twitter that his client had been headed to Belgium from Finland by vehicle when he was detained by the German police on an international arrest warrant.

The German news agency D.P.A. reported that the criminal investigation office of the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein had confirmed Mr. Puigdemont’s arrest, according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Puigdemont “was arrested today at 11:19 a.m. by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force,” a German police spokesman said, adding that the detention was based on a European warrant. “He is now in police custody,” the spokesman said.

Mr. Puigdemont had been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since he led a banned referendum in October that backed Catalonia’s unilateral secession from Spain.

This past week, a Spanish Supreme Court judge, Pablo Llarena, issued international arrest warrants for six Catalan politicians, including Mr. Puigdemont, and ordered five other Catalan politicians to be detained without bail.

The decision reignited tensions in the region as the central Spanish government struggled to quell the secessionist movement in Catalonia, a wealthy northeastern region.

On Saturday, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation said it had received the warrant for Mr. Puigdemont’s detention issued by Spain. But the Finnish police said in a statement that they had no knowledge of his whereabouts.

Mikko Karna, a Finnish member of Parliament and one of the ousted leader’s hosts in Finland, said in a statement on Twitter on Saturday that he had “received information that Carles Puigdemont departed from Finland yesterday evening by unknown means to Belgium.”

Mr. Puigdemont, who had become the embodiment of Catalonia’s aspirations for independence, announced this month that he was giving up his efforts to be reappointed as the region’s president.

If he returns to Spain, Mr. Puigdemont could face up to 30 years in prison on charges of rebellion and 15 years for sedition for his part in organizing the illegal referendum on secession.

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