Spanish Supreme Court judge refuses intl arrest warrant for Catalonia’s Puigdemont

A Spanish judge has rejected a petition from the country’s prosecutor asking Danish authorities to arrest ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont. On Monday, Puigdemont arrived in Copenhagen from Brussels to speak at the University of Copenhagen. He is also scheduled to meet Danish lawmakers on Tuesday. The trip is Puigdemont’s first outside Belgium. He fled to Brussels to avoid a Spanish probe for his role in an unsuccessful secession bid for Catalonia in October. Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena said that Puigdemont wants to be arrested overseas so he can blame on Spain his absence from a meeting of the Catalan parliament later this month, in which he is the candidate expected to be sworn in as the region’s president, AP said.