Trial of Catalan separatists begins in Madrid amid protests

MADRID — Twelve Catalan separatists went on trial Tuesday in the Spanish capital for staging a failed 2017 independence referendum that triggered a constitutional crisis and exposed rifts in a nation’s identity.

The trial is unprecedented in modern Spain. Carlos Lesmes, the president of Spain’s Supreme Court, characterized it as the “most important” case since the country returned to democracy in 1975.

It will be a test for the impartiality of Spain’s judiciary. And, as it plays out on live television and saturates news headlines, reviving debates about democratic rights and political control, it will be a test of whether Spain’s governing minority coalition can hold together.

As what is expected to be a three-month trial got underway, pro- and antiseparatist demonstrators shouted at each other outside the court, surrounded by hundreds of police.

The 12 separatists — including Catalonia’s former vice president and other regional officials — stand accused of rebellion, sedition and the misuse of public funds. If convicted, they could face up to 25 years in prison. They deny the charges.

In October 2017, they staged an independence referendum in open defiance of the government in Madrid and the Spanish courts.

According to their results, 90 percent of voters supported secession — which Catalonia’s regional parliament used as the basis for declaring independence. But only about 43 percent of Catalans participated, with most of those who supported the national government’s position boycotting the exercise.