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Germany's deputy public prosecutor Ralph Döpper has announced that the exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has been moved to the penitentiary centre of Neumünster, near Kiel, under "police custody" status, awaiting a possible court appearance on Monday to decide whether the European arrest warrant for the Catalan leader is to be implemented, as reported by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The prosecutor's statement suggests that the German authorities are adopting a calm approach to the case. "The decision on whether an extradition process will be activated for the pro-independence leader will probably not be taken until tomorrow", indicated Döpper. We "have just begun our examination", he added.

In this case, it is not the German federal prosecution that is acting, but rather that of Schleswig-Holstein, the German state where Carles Puigdemont has been detained. Sources in the German ministry of justice have explained that the process will not be immediate and could take days, but they also rejected the suggestion that it could be as drawn out as in Belgium, where an earlier attempt to extradite the exiled Catalan leaders looked likely to continue for months, before being cancelled by the Spanish judge.

The German public prosecution service has confirmed that Puigdemont is "in custody" of the authorities, and even though they did not confirm that he was being held in the Neumünster prison centre, as the German press informs, they have said that he is in a "secure" place. The prosecutors plan to hold a press conference on Monday at noon.

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Below, the prison of Neumünster where Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is being held.