Sacked Catalan president denies seeking Belgian asylum

The dismissed president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, called a news conference in Brussels Tuesday, to deny asking for political asylum in Belgium, after the region came under direct Spanish rule. He accused the Madrid government of extremist oppressive measures without legal foundation. “All that we asked for,” he said, “was dialogue and avoiding violence, but the Spanish government chose a different way.” The Spanish constitutional court earlier voided the Catalan parliament’s independence measure as illegal.