Prosecutors seek charges against Catalan leaders

Ex-leaders suspected of sedition, embezzlement of funds

Madrid, Oct. 30: Spain’s chief public prosecutor said on Monday that his office is seeking charges including rebellion against the now-deposed leaders of Catalonia following last week’s declaration of independence by the region’s parliament.

Jose Manuel Maza said that the former leaders, dismissed by the Madrid government on Friday, are suspected of “sedition, embezzlement of funds and abuse of authority”.

A court now has to decide whether to accept the charges.

The party of Catalonia's dismissed president Carles Puigdemont will run in a December regional election called by Spain’s government in response to a declaration of independence by Catalan leaders, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

“We will go to the polls on December 21. We will go with conviction and with a commitment to letting the Catalan people express themselves,” Marta Pascal, spokeswoman for the PDeCAT party, told reporters.

On Friday, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy We will go to the polls on December 21. We will go with a commitment to letting the Catalan people express themselves

Marta Pascal, said he had dissolved the Catalan Parliament and called a snap vote for the region under sweeping powers approved by the Senate to stop the secessionist movement.

Separatist parties of all political stripes, from Mr Carles Puigdemont’s conservatives to the far-left, have dominated the Catalan Parliament since the last election in 2015, holding 72 seats out of 135. Catalonia has also dismissed that Mr Puigdemont was in Brussels on Monday, a Spanish government source said, as prosecutors called for him to be charged with rebellion

A man (right) shows a picture of two leaders of Catalan separatist groups, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, who were detained for sedition, as he protests demanding their freedom at ‘Generalitat’ palace in Barcelona on Monday. —