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Catalan separatist trial to start on February 7 or 12: court
MADRID, Feb 1, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The trial of 12 Catalan separatist leaders
involved in a bid to secede from Spain will start on February 7 or 12,
Supreme Court president Carlos Lesmes said Friday.
Lesmes was speaking to reporters in a briefing before the long-anticipated
trial just as nine of the accused were being transferred from the
northeastern region of Catalonia to prisons near Madrid.
In pre-trial detention for months, they have been charged with rebellion
for their role in a dramatic attempt to break from Spain in October 2017.
Three others will also stand trial, accused of disobedience and misuse of
public funds.
After having left their prisons in Catalonia in police vans when it was
still dark, the nine were gathered together at another jail near Barcelona.
They left again in a Civil Guard police bus for Madrid, with supporters
outside cheering them on, waving the region’s red, yellow and blue separatist
flag.
The official start date of the trial could be announced on Friday or
Monday.
It is divisive — a “farce” for independence supporters in Catalonia but
necessary for many Spaniards who looked on in disbelief as the rich region’s
then executive tried to secede.
Among notable absentees will be Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s former
president who fled to Belgium days after the region’s majority-separatist
parliament made a short-lived declaration of independence on October 27,
2017.
Spain does not try suspects in absentia.
As such, the trial’s main protagonist is former regional vice president
Oriol Junqueras who opted to remain in Spain and faces up to 25 years in jail
on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds.
BSS/AFP/RY/1700 hrs