Spanish minister blames Puigdemont for incarceration of leaders

The Spanish foreign minister blamed the former Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, for the incarceration of nine pro-independence leaders, ruled by Spain's Supreme Court.

According to Josep Borrell, the leader's move to Brussels right after the declaration of independence prompted magistrates to send his former cabinet colleagues to precautionary jail.

"The risk of flight increases if others have done it," he said in a Spanish Congress committee on Thursday evening. "Probably the biggest obstacle for the judge to having taken such a firm decision has been the fact that Mr. Puigdemont and others left their colleagues high and dry by absconding."