Twelve Catalan separatists will go on trial on February 12 over their bid to make the region independent from Spain, the Supreme Court said Friday, naming the country’s ex-prime minister among those called to testify.
Nine of the accused are charged with rebellion for their role in the dramatic breakaway attempt in October 2017. They face up to 25 years in jail.
Spain’s conservative former prime minister Mariano Rajoy will be one of “hundreds” of witnesses to testify at the trial, a Supreme Court document said.
Rajoy sacked Catalonia’s regional government and called snap local elections after the Catalan parliament declared independence in October 2017 following a banned independence referendum.
He was unseated by a no-confidence vote backed by Catalan separatist parties last year.
Rajoy’s deputy prime minister Soraya Saez de Santamaria, former Catalan president Artur Mas and Barcelona’s current mayor Ada Colau are also among those summoned to testify in the trial.
The court said it would also hear testimony from police officers and citizens who were injured during clashes suring the October 1, 2017 independence referendum.
Riot police beat protesters and stormed polling stations on the day of the referendum in an attempt to stop it from going ahead.
But the court refused a request to summon as expert witnesses US linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky and respected British historian Paul Preston. It also declined to call on Spain’s King Felipe VI to testify.
– Rebellion accusations –
In pre-trial detention for months, the nine jailed defendants were being transferred from the northeastern region of Catalonia to prisons near Madrid on Friday.
Supporters in Barcelona cheered them as they were taken away, waving the region’s red, yellow and blue separatist flag.
Three others will also stand trial, accused of disobedience and misuse of public funds.
Supporters of independence for Catalonia call the trial a “farce”.
But many Spaniards support it, having looked on in disbelief as the rich region’s then executive tried to secede.
Catalonia’s president at the time of the secession bid, Carles Puigdemont, is also accused of rebellion.
He fled Spain after the region’s majority-separatist parliament made a short-lived declaration of independence on October 27, 2017.
He is not among the 12 going on trial this month in Spain, which does not try suspects in absentia.
The trial’s main protagonist is former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, who opted to remain in Spain. He faces up to 25 years in jail on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds.
