PROTESTERS have clashed with riot police in Barcelona and other Catalan towns following the detention of the region’s former president Carles Puigdemont in Germany on Sunday.

A German court was set to rule today on whether the separatist politician would remain in custody while other courts decide whether he should be extradited to Spain, where he is charged with rebellion and misuse of public funds for organising a unilateral referendum on Catalan independence, regarded as illegal by Madrid, last October.

The Catalan parliament’s subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a heavy-handed takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.