MADRID, Oct 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spain’s Supreme Court is expected to issue a verdict Monday in the controversial case of 12 Catalan leaders over their role in a failed 2017 independence bid that sparked the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
Tension has been mounting steadily ahead of the ruling with police sending
reinforcements to Catalonia where separatists have pledged a mass response of civil disobedience, calling for rallies, roadblocks and a general strike.
The 12 defendants, most of them members of the former Catalan government, are facing long prison terms for their role in the banned Oct 1
referendum and the short-lived independence declaration that followed it.
Following a high-profile trial which ended in June, judges at Spain’s
highest court will issue their decision on charges ranging from rebellion and sedition to disobedience and misappropriation of funds.
Former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras is the main defendant after
his boss, Carles Puigdemont, fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution.
The government is hoping the long-awaited ruling will allow it to turn the
page on the crisis in this wealthy northeastern region where support for
independence has been gaining momentum over the past decade.
But the separatist movement is hoping for just the opposite: that the
anticipated guilty verdicts will unite their divided ranks and bring
supporters onto the streets.
Activists from the region’s two biggest grassroots pro-independence
groups, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Omnium Cultural, have urged followers to rally on the evening of the verdict.
And in the following days, demonstrators will march from five towns
towards Barcelona where they will congregate on Friday, when a general strike has been called.
Activists from the radical CDR (Committees for the Defence of the
Republic), have also promised “surprises”. On Sunday they briefly occupied
the main train station in Barcelona before cutting traffic on a main avenue
of the city.
Anti-riot police have been discreetly deployed to Catalonia, but the
interior ministry has refused to give numbers.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made it clear that his
government will not tolerate any violence, warning he will not hesitate to
renew a suspension of Catalan autonomy as happened two years ago.
The trial comes just weeks before Spain heads to the polls for its fourth
election in as many years, putting the Catalan question once more at the
centre of the political debate. — NNN-AGENCIES
