Spanish police have detained two members of the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police force who, while on leave from their jobs, were accompanying exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in the van which was stopped by German police on Sunday. The two are Xavier Goicoechea Fernández and Carlos de Pedro López, according to police sources. Carlos López was detained around midday on Tuesday at Barcelona's El Prat airport, when returning from Brussels, while Xavier Goicoechea was taken into custody shortly afterwards, near his home in the town of Vilassar de Mar.
The two Mossos were taken by members of Spain's National Police force to the La Verneda police station for questioning. Police sources indicate that they will probably be released to await a subsequent hearing before a judge, within the framework of existing judicial cases on the actions of the Mossos corps in relation to last October's independence referendum.
Spanish public prosecutors announced on Tuesday that they were opening a formal judicial case on the people who were travelling with Carles Puigdemont on his journey from Finland to his Belgian residence at Waterloo, having been investigating the activities of these police officers for two months. The Catalan president was accompanied by four people in his car on Sunday: the two Mossos, who are on a leave of absence and who normally carry out security escort functions; Puigdemont's personal friend, businessman Josep Maria Matamala; and Josep Lluís Alay, a history professor at the University of Barcelona, also a personal friend of Puigdemont. The prosecution service is investigating them for possible offences of concealment.
Internal investigation
In parallel, the Mossos d'Esquadra has also opened its own inquiry into the two agents who accompanied the president, according to sources in Spain's interior ministry. From the day that Puigdemont went into Belgian exile last November, members of the Mossos have taken charge of his security in Belgium, making use of leave to which they were entitled.
Xavier Goicoechea and Carles de Pedro were travelling with Puigdemont when he was arrested last Sunday, but as the European arrest warrant did not affect them they remained free. Now they are under investigation, both internally and as part of a broader legal case.