MADRID, Oct 14, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – 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 October 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 gear up to protest –
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.
For many, the situation has brought back memories of tensions in the
street in the run-up to the October 1 referendum which was marred by police
violence, and ahead of the short-lived independence declaration of October
27.
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 situation is worrying the main Catalan business lobby which said
although the verdict would have a “significant emotional impact”, it was
important the response avoided disrupting “business activity or social
cohesion”.
– Sedition not rebellion –
The court is widely reported in the media to have chosen to sentence them
for sedition and not rebellion, which carries a far heavier sentence.
But after those leaks, the president of the court, Manuel Marchena, warned
on Saturday that no decision is final until it has been signed by all seven
judges. The signature is expected on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.
By definition, rebellion is “rising up in a violent and public manner” to,
among other things, “declare independence for part of the (Spanish)
territory”.
Sedition, however, is “rising up publicly and in turbulent fashion” to
“prevent by force or in an illegal way” the law from being applied, or the
application of an administrative or legal decision.
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.
Although Sanchez’s government is hoping the trial’s end might give fresh
impetus to dialogue, Junqueras’ leftwing ERC party has said it would not be
possible without an “amnesty” for “political prisoners and those in exile”.