Spain lifts arrest warrant for Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont

MADRID -- Spain has lifted the arrest warrant for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, allowing the politician to return home without fear of detention for the first time in nearly a decade.

Puigdemont fled Spain for Belgium in 2017 after his failed bid to lead an illegal secession attempt for Spain’s northeastern Catalonia.

Judge Pablo Llarena lifted his arrest warrant on Tuesday moments after Spain’s Constitutional Court announced it has decided to apply a government amnesty for the Catalan separatists to one of Puigdemont’s cohorts who had been found guilty of misusing public funds.

Llarena said he was lifting the arrest warrant for Puigdemont while awaiting the opportunity to study the Constitutional Court’s decision, which he said would likely affect the warrant.

Puigdemont's party in Catalonia, Junts, said that he will give a press conference later on Tuesday from Waterloo, where he resides as a self-proclaimed exile.