Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont | Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images Belgium to investigate Spain’s alleged spying on Puigdemont Spanish secret services may have used agents and a GPS tracker to keep tabs on the former Catalan leader.

Belgian authorities will investigate whether Spanish secret services tracked former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont in Belgium without their knowledge.

The watchdog for intelligence services in Belgium, Comité R, launched the investigation at the request of Peter Buysrogge, a member of the right-wing New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), Belgian daily De Tijd reported Wednesday.

"I want to know whether an intervention of the Spanish intelligence or security services has taken place on our territory and if so, did it happen with the knowledge of Belgian federal security services?" Buysrogge said, asking the watchdog to address claims Spanish authorities deployed a number of secret agents and placed a GPS transmitter under Puigdemont's car while he was in Belgium.

Members of Belgium's N-VA party, which has at times called for the breakup of Belgium and sided openly with the separatists in Catalonia, expressed support for Puigdemont following Catalonia's October 2017 independence referendum, saying the deposed Catalan leader could seek asylum in Belgium.

Puigdemont fled to Belgium following the independence vote that was deemed unconstitutional by Madrid. He faces charges including rebellion and misuse of public funds in Spain over his role in the separatist push, and is currently in Germany where authorities must decide whether to grant an extradition request from Spain.