Catalan separatist leaders accused of sedition amid protests

THE Spanish attorney general’s office yesterday pushed for charges against leaders of Barcelona protests that saw Guardia Civil vehicles vandalised and agents surrounded during a night of tension over the arrests of Catalan officials.

The Spanish national court was asked to investigate alleged sedition amid protests that broke out across the city during a sweeping round of raids targeting pro-independence leaders on Wednesday. The crime carries a charge of up to 15 years in prison. As protests continued to grip Barcelona, with demonstrators occupying the city’s university rectory yesterday, the attorney of the national court accused protesters of knowingly breaking the law in their bid to hold a banned independence referendum on Oct 1.

At least 40,000 demonstrators descended on the Catalan department of economy as it was raided, blocking agents inside from leaving for up to nine hours.

The 11-page complaint said protesters also destroyed three Guardia Civil vehicles and that hundreds of people threw objects at the Catalan police, the Mossos d’esquadra. It singled out the leaders of two pro-independence groups, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, as having orchestrated and encouraged the protests.

The demonstrations were mounted “to prevent by force the actions of the authorities and their agents in the exercise of their functions in defence of the constitutional order”, the complaint alleged.

Demonstrators continued to rally outside Barcelona’s High Court of Justice yesterday as Catalan officials, including the treasury secretary, appeared to face charges. Although sedition had been cited on custody orders, suspects were charged with misappropriation of funds, breach of official duty and disobedience, and released on bail.

The Catalan government insists the referendum will still go ahead in the face of what it calls Spanish “authoritarianism” and yesterday announced that a number of medical facilities would give space for polling.

Madrid has deployed thousands of Guardia Civil to the autonomous region in a bid to prevent the vote in a move it says is necessary to protect Spanish democracy.