ZCZC
BFF-33
SPAIN-CATALONIA-POLITICS-TRIAL
Catalan separatist trial to end June 11: court
MADRID, May 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The trial of 12 Catalan separatists over a
failed attempt to secede in October 2017 is due to end on June 11, Spain’s
Supreme Court said Tuesday.
The court said in a statement defence pleas and the defendants’ last
declarations had been scheduled for June 10 and 11, marking the close of a
trial that will have lasted four months.
The verdict is expected in the autumn, possibly in October, according to
Spanish media.
The Madrid-based court is trying the 12 in connection with a banned
independence referendum held October 1, 2017 that was followed by a short-
lived declaration of independence which sparked Spain’s worst political
crisis in decades.
Catalonia’s former vice-president Oriol Junqueras faces up to 25 years in
jail, the heaviest sentence, for rebellion and misuse of public funds.
He is currently in custody as the highly sensitive trial continues, as are
eight other defendants.
For Catalonia’s pro-independence movement, they are “political prisoners”
but the judiciary and government categorically refute this.
Four of them were elected MPs in an April general election.
They were let out of custody to swear allegiance to the constitution in
parliament, before being suspended on Friday.
Another defendant who was elected to the Senate has not yet been suspended.
Junqueras was also elected as a Member of the European Parliament in
Sunday’s vote.
BSS/AFP/RY/1706 hrs