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Image / Reuters.
The speaker of Catalonia’s sacked parliament appeared before Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday in the latest legal case brought against separatist leaders for their role in the region’s divisive independence bid.
A judge may decide to detain Carme Forcadell and five former lawmakers on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds after Catalan lawmakers voted last month to split from Spain.
They are suspected of having followed a “concerted strategy to declare independence,” before the official declaration of the Catalan parliament on October 27, deepening Spain’s most serious political crisis in decades.
That declaration was annulled Wednesday by Spain’s Constitutional Court.
The Catalan crisis has prompted hundreds of businesses to re-register outside the wealthy northeastern region and caused disquiet in a European Union still dealing with Britain’s shock decision to leave.
On Wednesday a general strike called in Catalonia by a pro-independence union caused widespread travel chaos, cutting Spain’s main highway link to France and the rest of Europe and disrupting trains from Barcelona to Paris, Marseille and Lyon.
Authorities said around 150,000 people were affected.
The 54-year-old has ignored a summons to appear before a judge in Madrid, saying he wants guarantees he will receive a fair trial.
His presence in the European capital has raised some fears of stoking communal tensions in Belgium after Flemish separatists in the ruling coalition there spoke out in support of Catalan independence.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel on Wednesday moved to deny that his government was “in crisis” over the saga.
The charges faced by former Catalan leaders carry up to 30 years in jail.
Catalonia, a region of 7.5 million people that accounts for a fifth of Spain’s GDP, is deeply divided over independence.
Image / Reuters.
The speaker of Catalonia’s sacked parliament appeared before Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday in the latest legal case brought against separatist leaders for their role in the region’s divisive independence bid.
A judge may decide to detain Carme Forcadell and five former lawmakers on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds after Catalan lawmakers voted last month to split from Spain.
They are suspected of having followed a “concerted strategy to declare independence,” before the official declaration of the Catalan parliament on October 27, deepening Spain’s most serious political crisis in decades.
That declaration was annulled Wednesday by Spain’s Constitutional Court.
The Catalan crisis has prompted hundreds of businesses to re-register outside the wealthy northeastern region and caused disquiet in a European Union still dealing with Britain’s shock decision to leave.
On Wednesday a general strike called in Catalonia by a pro-independence union caused widespread travel chaos, cutting Spain’s main highway link to France and the rest of Europe and disrupting trains from Barcelona to Paris, Marseille and Lyon.
Authorities said around 150,000 people were affected.
The 54-year-old has ignored a summons to appear before a judge in Madrid, saying he wants guarantees he will receive a fair trial.
His presence in the European capital has raised some fears of stoking communal tensions in Belgium after Flemish separatists in the ruling coalition there spoke out in support of Catalan independence.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel on Wednesday moved to deny that his government was “in crisis” over the saga.
The charges faced by former Catalan leaders carry up to 30 years in jail.
Catalonia, a region of 7.5 million people that accounts for a fifth of Spain’s GDP, is deeply divided over independence.
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