I have repeatedly expressed my opinion, both on elDiario.es and in Ara, about the bet that Carles Puigdemont made in December 2017 to cross the border and settle in Belgium. At the time he crossed the border, there was not even a complaint filed against him in the Spanish legal system. Puigdemont was a Spanish citizen who fully exercised his fundamental rights, including the right to “freely enter and leave Spain” (art. 19 of the Constitution). Since Spain is a Member State of the European Union, Puigdemont had and has the right to establish his residence in any of the Member States of the Union, without the exercise of that right being considered an act of “rebellion” before any judicial body. Spanish.
When he left Spain 'freely', Puigdemont was not exempted from the obligation to place himself at the disposal of the Supreme Court, in case that judicial body considered that he should be prosecuted for certain crimes. By simply exercising the right of defence, he obliged the Supreme Court to convince the judicial body of the country that had to execute the arrest and extradition warrant issued against him, that Carles Puigdemont should be extradited to Spain to be tried for the crimes of which he was accused in the aforementioned warrant.