Updated 6.10pm

Catalonia's ousted president Carles Puigdemont is to appear before a judge on Monday after he was detained by German police on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain, court officials said.

"The sole purpose of this appearance is to verify the identity of the person arrested. The regional tribunal of Schleswig-Holstein in the town of Schleswig will then have to decide if Mr Puigdemont has to be taken into custody" in view of handing him over to Spain, the court said.

German police on Sunday arrested Mr Puigdemont as he crossed over by car from Denmark.

Puigdemont "was arrested today at 11:19 am by Schleswig-Holstein's highway patrol force," a German police spokesman told AFP, adding that the detention was based on a European warrant.

"He is now in police custody", added the spokesman.

Puigdemont's party spokeswoman Anna Grabalosa also separately confirmed that he was detained on arrival in Germany from Denmark.

"It happened as he crossed the Danish-German border. He was treated well and all his lawyers are there. That is all I can say," she said.

Puigdemont is wanted by Spain on charges of "rebellion" and "sedition", over his independence bid for Catalan.

He had been visiting Finland since Thursday, but slipped out of the Nordic country before Finnish police could detain him.

Puigdemont's lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, said on Twitter that Puigdemont was picked up by German police as he was travelling back to Belgium where he has been living in self-imposed exile.

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