Exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has already touched down in Geneva after flying from his Belgian residence in defiance of the Spanish authorities. During the last week, Spain's Public Prosecutor's Office took steps to try and prevent the Catalan president from travelling to Switzerland, along with his fellow Catalan minister in exile, Meritxell Serret.
The Spanish prosecutors requested that their government and Interpol consider whether various measures were possible: the arrest of the Catalan pair, their extradition and the placing of limitations on their passports. For its part, Switzerland's Federal Justice Office denied any possibility of arrest and extradition: "Any extradition for political offences is ruled out. The situation has not changed and, therefore, there is no legal basis for an arrest in Switzerland", explained spokesperson Folco Galli.
With this information, Puigdemont communicated at 3:30pm on Saturday afternoon, that he had left Brussels and was flying to Geneva, where he plans to take part in a conference on Sunday as part of the International film festival and forum on human rights (FIFDH).
"Flying to Geneva. In the next few days we will speak intensely about Catalonia and explain its right to be an independent Republic. We will speak loud and clear in spite of the attempt to arrest us made by Spain's repressive apparatus", he wrote on Instagram, adding an aerial photo:
Shortly after publishing this Instagram message, Carles Puigdemont also published a tweet in French mentioning that on Sunday he will be taking part in the human rights film festival.
The festival programme includes a projection of the documentary "Catalonia: Spain, on the verge of a nervous breakdown". The film documents the police repression during the 1st October referendum and the resulting political fallout.