Spanish supreme court charges 13 Catalan leaders with rebellion

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/23/jordi-turull-latest-candidate-catalan-presidency-appear-court-spain

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A Spanish supreme court judge has charged 13 senior Catalan leaders, including the region’s deposed president and the candidate chosen to succeed him, with rebellion over their roles in last year’s unilateral referendum and subsequent declaration of independence.

The charges, announced on Friday morning by Judge Pablo Llarena, carry a maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment and were brought against both Carles Puigdemont, the former president in exile in Belgium, and Jordi Turul, who faces a vote on Saturday to take up the post.

Llarena, announcing the charges, said that Catalan separatist politicians and civil society groups had “colluded” for the past six years to execute a plan to declare Catalonia’s independence, in violation of Spain’s legal order.

The court did not give a date for the trial.

Among those also charged with the same offence are the former Catalan vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, the former speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell, and the senior civil society group figures Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez.

Marta Rovira, the general secretary of Junqueras’ Catalan Republican Left party, failed to appear in court Madrid, explaining in a letter that she was fleeing Spain. She was also charged with rebellion.

The decision came at the end of a four-month judicial investigation into the Puigdemont government’s attempts to secede unilaterally from Spain. The former president fled to Belgium last autumn and faces immediate arrest if he returns to Spain.

The announcement of the charges followed Thursday night’s investiture debate in the Catalan parliament, in which Turull’s first attempt to be elected was scuppered by the region’s most hardline pro-independence party.

Turull, Puigdemont’s former chief of staff and the third candidate to be proposed for the presidency since the elections last December, failed to win the support of the regional parliament after the far-left, anti-capitalist Popular Unity Candidacy (Cup) announced that it would no longer work in coalition with the two larger pro-independence parties.

Turull, who avoided mentioning independence in his speech to MPs and called for “dialogue, dialogue and dialogue” with Madrid, fell short of the absolute majority needed, with 64 votes in favour and 65 against.

The Cup’s four votes in the chamber would have handed him victory, but it withdrew its support in protest at the other parties’ refusal to give an explicit guarantee that they would push ahead with unilateral independence.

“We at the Cup consider that this phase of the independence movement is over,” said the party spokesman Carles Riera. “We are joining the opposition to continue our struggle with the state and to fight those who want to sustain the current regional model.”

Rovira and two other Catalan Republican Left MPs who were due in court on Friday resigned their seats immediately after the vote. The move allows others to take their places, thus safeguarding votes.

A second investiture debate is due to be held on Saturday, in which a simple majority – more votes for than against – is needed.

The debate on Thursday has started the constitutional and electoral clock ticking. Parties have two months to propose and elect a presidential candidate. If none is successful within that time, fresh Catalan elections will be held in mid-July.

Catalonia has been under direct rule from Madrid since the end of October, when Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, responded to the unilateral independence declaration by sacking Puigdemont and his government and calling snap elections.