Exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, detained by police this Sunday in Germany, is considering the possibility of asking for political asylum in that country, according to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, as well as the local paper Kiel Nachrichten, quoting sources close to the German justice system.
"In the event that he does so, the asylum application will have to be analyzed by the Federal Bureau of Migration (BAMF) just like any other application," said a spokesperson for the interior ministry of the Schleswig -Holstein region.
However, the possibilities for such an application to be approved are scarce. "Criminal prosecution, that is to say, the execution of a European arrest warrant, prevails over an asylum process," the spokesperson said. Even so, the ultimate decision falls on the German federal prosecution service and the BAMF.
Schleswig-Holstein's interior minister, Hans-Joachim Grote, praised the police for the successful detention of Puigdemont based on the European arrest warrant.
According to the local press, Finland's security authorities informed Germany's Federal Criminal Investigation Office (BKA) of the Puigdemont road trip. The police operation involved special forces from the regional police and also members of Germany's federal police.
The prosecutor in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, in charge of the case, will determine by tomorrow whether Puigdemont will be maintained in police custody until the question of his handover to Spain is resolved, a step that could take between 10 and 60 days, according to European legislation.