Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile for seven years since staging an unauthorized referendum for independence, reemerged in Barcelona on Thursday — and then quickly disappeared again, evading arrest and prompting a manhunt across the region.

       Jordi Turull, the secretary general of Puigdemont’s separatist party, Together for Catalonia, said Friday morning in an interview on Catalan radio that Puigdemont is no longer in Spain and is headed back to Belgium, where he has primarily been based since the 2017 referendum. Puidgemont’s lawyer also told the radio station that he was no longer in Spain.