SPAIN PARDONS NINE SEPARATISTS FROM CATALONIA

MADRID/BARCELONA Spain on Tuesday pardoned all nine separatist leaders jailed for their role in Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid in a gesture the government hopes will foster dialogue to keep the region part of Spain.

The politicians and activists were sentenced in 2019 to between nine and 13 years for sedition and misuse of public funds after a referendum on a breakaway that courts banned but which led to a short-lived declaration of independence triggering Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

“With this act we want to open a new phase of dialogue, of reconciliation, and to stop, once and for all, all the divisions and confrontation,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address.

Catalonia's separatist head of government Pere Aragones said the pardons were a first step on “the path of negotiation and agreement,” while reaffirming his view that Madrid should allow a referendum.

The pardons are conditional, and a ban on the leaders holding public office remains in place, Sanchez said.