Brussels prosecutors say that ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and four ex-ministers have been taken into custody to start the process of their possible extradition to Spain.
A spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office, Gilles Dejemeppe, says the five presented themselves to federal police and have been in custody since 9 a.m. (0800 GMT; 3 a.m. EST). He said that they have not been arrested and that Mr. Puigdemont and the four ex-ministers will be heard by an investigative judge Sunday afternoon.
The judge will have to decide what the next steps are within 24 hours. They could vary from arrest and imprisonment to conditional release.
The five had fled to Belgium this week after being removed from power by Spanish authorities as part of an extraordinary crackdown to impede the region’s illegal declaration of independence.
Federal prosecutors in Belgium had said on Saturday that they were studying the warrants and that they had shared them with city counterparts in Brussels.
