Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont returns to Spain after seven years, defying risk of arrest

• Former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont returned to Spain after seven years of self-imposed exile, defying a pending arrest warrant and igniting a police manhunt. 
• "They were thinking they would celebrate my arrest … But they are wrong," he told his followers according to a CNBC translation, rattling his fist in the air. "It was not, it is not, and it will never be a crime to have a referendum."
• Widely perceived as a symbol of the Catalonian separatist struggle against Spanish national control, the 61-year-old Puigdemont is sought on charges of embezzlement, which he denies.

Former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont returned to Spain after seven years of self-imposed exile, defying a pending arrest warrant and igniting a police manhunt. 

Pictures and video footage showed the separatist politician, who fled Spain after embarking on a failed quest for Catalan independence in 2017, addressing a crowd of supporters in Barcelona.

"They were thinking they would celebrate my arrest … But they are wrong," he told his followers according to a CNBC translation, rattling his fist in the air. "It was not, it is not, and it will never be a crime to have a referendum."

He appeared to vanish in the crowd after the speech, despite a heavy police presence.

Barcelona's authorities rapidly launched "Operation Cage," setting up roadblocks within and just outside of Barcelona in an attempt to locate Puigdemont's vehicle.

In a series of CNBC-translated updates on the X social media platform, Puigdemont appeared to taunt his pursuers, asking, "Am I inside the walls of Parliament?" and mocking media reports over the progress of Operation Cage, noting that "the ridiculousness is absolute."

CNBC has contacted Spain's Interior