(MADRID) — Spanish police arrested at least 12 people Wednesday in raids on Catalan government offices, news reports said, as national authorities intensified a crackdown on the region's preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal.

It was the first time Spanish authorities have detained Catalan officials since the campaign to hold a vote on Catalonia's independence began to gather momentum in 2011.

The move was the latest spike in tension in the standoff between national authorities based in Madrid and pro-independence Catalans over a planned Oct. 1 referendum. Several thousand Catalans gathered to angrily protest the raids outside government offices in the region's capital, Barcelona.

Some demonstrators sat down in the street to block police cars, while others scuffled with officers. Protests also occurred in other Catalan towns. There were no reports of arrests or injuries.

Catalonia's president, Carles Puigdemont, blasted the police operations as "unlawful" and accused the national government of adopting a "totalitarian attitude."

Police acting on a judge's orders searched 42 premises, including six regional government offices, officials' private offices and homes, as well as three companies in Barcelona, the city's superior court said in a statement. It said some 20 people are under investigation for alleged disobedience, abuse of power and embezzlement related to the referendum.

Police and judicial authorities declined to give further details of the operation, which aimed to halt preparations for the vote, saying a judge has placed a secrecy order on it.

Police confiscated nearly 10 million ballot papers, the Interior Ministry said. Polling station signs and documents for electoral officers were also seized during a raid on a warehouse in a small town outside Barcelona.

The Catalan regional government confirmed Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, and Lluis Salvado, secretary of taxation, were among those arrested. Jove is No. 2 to the region's vice president and economy chief, Oriol Junqueras.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said his conservative government is determined to prevent the ballot. He said the Catalan government is going against the Spanish Constitution by holding the vote and that "logically, the state has to act."

"No democratic state in the world would accept what these people are proposing," Rajoy said. His stance has the backing of most Spanish opposition parties.

The Constitutional Court has ordered the vote to be suspended as it assesses its legality, but Catalan officials say they will press ahead regardless.

"Today the government of Rajoy has crossed a very dangerous red line," said Jordi Sanchez, president of Catalan National Assembly, a civic group leading the independence drive. "We will do all we can for democracy and freedom to prevail."

The Barcelona soccer team, which is popular around the world, waded into the controversy too. It said it "condemns any act that may impede the free exercise of (democratic) rights" and vowed to "continue to support the will of the majority of Catalan people, and will do so in a civil, peaceful, and exemplary way."

The arrests risked stoking public anger in Catalonia, where pro-independence passions can run high. At the demonstration outside the Catalan regional ministry of economy, protester Charo Rovira said she felt sad at the turn of events.

"Catalonia is practically in a state of siege," she said. She added that the arrested politicians were merely acting according to the will of the people.

Spain's Interior Ministry canceled time off and scheduled leave for Civil Guard and National Police officers who are being deployed to ensure the ballot doesn't happen. It gave no details on the number of agents involved.

In another tightening of the screw, Spain's Finance Ministry said it has imposed further controls over the Catalan government's finances to ensure no public money is used for the referendum. Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro signed an order late Tuesday that limits new credit and requires central authorities' supervision for every payment of non-essential services in Catalonia, the ministry said.

The measure means that virtually all the Catalan public spending will be in the hands of Madrid. The Finance Ministry took over the direct payment of basic services such as education, health and civil servants' salaries last week.

Puigdemont claimed the central government has effectively ended Catalonia's self-rule. The region, like others in Spain, has broad self-governing powers.

Catalonia represents a fifth of Spain's 1.1-trillion-euro ($1.32 trillion) economy. The region's 7.5 million inhabitants overwhelmingly favor a referendum but are roughly evenly divided over independence. </s> News reports says Spanish police have arrested 12 people in raids on offices of the regional government of Catalonia as a crackdown intensifies on the region's preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal.

Spain's Europa Press news agency and other media outlets said the raids Wednesday mostly targeted the region's economic and foreign departments as Spanish authorities worked to halt all preparatory moves for the planned Oct. 1 referendum.

Hundreds of people gathered to protest the raids and shout pro-independence slogans outside offices in the region's capital, Barcelona.

The Catalan regional government confirmed Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, was among those arrested.

Police and judicial authorities would give no details on the operation, saying a judge has placed a secrecy order on it. </s> Early Wednesday, Spanish police raided government offices in Catalonia and detained at least a dozen separatist leaders — just 10 days before a planned referendum vote on Catalonian independence.

Catalonia, a region in northeast Spain, has its own language and culture. Separatists have long advocated for independence; a vote in 2014 overwhelmingly supported splitting away from Spain, although turnout was low.

Madrid did not recognize that vote, calling it illegal — and considers the upcoming referendum, slated for Oct. 1, to be equally unconstitutional.

According to El Pais, the Spanish Civil Guard raided multiple Catalan government offices, including the headquarters of the region's departments of Economy; Foreign Affairs; and Labor, Social Affairs and Families. The government arrested 14 people, the newspaper reports, and "among the detained, there are high-ranking officials" from the Catalan government, including the region's secretary of the economy and secretary of the treasury.

In the wake of the Spanish raids, the regional president of Catalonia was holding an emergency Cabinet meeting, NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Madrid.

Spanish Civil Guards have already confiscated ballots and told police to block voting stations, Lauren says. Now that they've also detained elected officials, tensions are rising:



On Wednesday, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont urged residents in the region to turn out for the Oct. 1 vote.

"We condemn and reject the anti-democratic and totalitarian actions of the Spanish state," he said, according to Reuters.

"Let's resist peacefully," the president of the Catalan National Assembly tweeted. "He did not have to wait long," the BBC reports. It adds:

"The centre of Barcelona soon became a sea of Catalan flags and the city's renowned football club threw its weight behind the protests, condemning any act that threatened freedom of speech and self-determination." </s> MADRID (AP) — The Latest on independence efforts in Spain’s Catalonia region (all times local):

News reports says Spanish police have arrested 12 people in raids on offices of the regional government of Catalonia as a crackdown intensifies on the region’s preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal.

Spain’s Europa Press news agency and other media outlets said the raids Wednesday mostly targeted the region’s economic and foreign departments as Spanish authorities worked to halt all preparatory moves for the planned Oct. 1referendum.

Hundreds of people gathered to protest the raids and shout pro-independence slogans outside offices in the region’s capital, Barcelona.

The Catalan regional government confirmed Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, was among those arrested.

Police and judicial authorities would give no details on the operation, saying a judge has placed a secrecy order on it.

The Catalan regional government says that a top official in the management of the region’s economic affairs has been arrested as a crackdown intensifies on preparations for a secession vote that Spanish authorities have suspended.

The arrest of Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs and number two to the region’s vice president Oriol Junqueras, took place on Wednesday morning as agents of Spain’s Civil Guard searched the premises of the regional department of economy, a spokeswoman with the institution said.

A spokesman for Junqueras confirmed the arrest and said that other Catalan government premises were being searched by the agents. Both officials declined to be identified by name, following internal protocol.

The central government is waging myriad legal battles to halt the Oct. 1 referendum called by the pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia, in northeastern Spain. </s> MADRID: Spain’s public prosecutor on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) ordered a criminal probe of over 700 Catalan mayors who are cooperating with an October 1 independence referendum deemed illegal by Madrid.

The move increases the pressure on Catalan officials just one day before the pro-separatist camp officially kicks off its referendum campaign in the Mediterranean port of Tarragona.

Furious at the decision to instigate a probe, Catalan municipal associations called on all the region’s mayors to protest in Barcelona on Saturday to show their “rejection of a Spanish judicial system that goes after the media, ballot papers, ballot boxes… and now mayors.”

The prosecutors’ office ordered the mayors who have agreed to help stage the vote be summoned to court as official suspects and if they do not appear to “order their arrest,”according to a copy of the ruling obtained by Agence France-Presse.

Pro-independence Catalan president Carles Puigdemont dubbed the move an “atrocity scarcely worthy of a democracy,” and said he would attend Saturday’s protest.

Catalonia’s pro-separatist government has asked the wealthy northeastern region’s 948 mayors to provide facilities for polling stations for the plebiscite.

So far 712 mostly smaller municipalities have agreed to participate, according to a list posted on the website of Catalonia’s Municipal Association for Independence (AMI) which represents 750 municipalities.

“They can arrest us! They’re crazy!,” David Rovira, the pro-separatist mayor of L’Espluga de Francoli, a town of some 3,800 residents, told Agence France-Presse by phone, adding that Madrid had “proposed nothing” to appease Catalonia’s demands for greater autonomy.

Jordi Turull, spokesman for the Catalan government, told reporters that the executive would support the region’s mayors and would “respect their decision.”

The ruling comes a day after prosecutors ordered police in Catalonia to seize ballot boxes, election flyers and any other item that could be used in the referendum.

Prosecutors have already launched an official complaint against Puigdemont and members of his government over their referendum plans, accusing them of civil disobedience, misfeasance and misappropriation of public funds—the latter carrying jail sentences of up to eight years.

And on Wednesday, the official referendum website was shut down following a court order, the Guardia Civil police force said, prompting Puigdemont to immediately tweet the address of a new website.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government has vowed to do everything in its power to stop the referendum. It argues that Spain’s 1978 constitution stipulates that regional governments cannot call an independence referendum.

Rajoy on Wednesday urged Catalans to boycott the referendum.

“If anyone urges you to go to a polling station, don’t go because the referendum can’t take place, it would be an absolutely illegal act,” he said.

Spain’s Constitutional Court has suspended a referendum law that was fast-tracked through Catalonia’s regional parliament last week but the Catalan government has vowed to go ahead with the vote nonetheless.

Catalan authorities routinely ignore the court’s decisions as they do not recognize its legitimacy. </s> The Wall Street Journal: Catalan officials arrested in Spain ahead of banned independence vote

Early Wednesday morning, Spain’s Civil Guard police forces searched 22 properties, including offices of Catalonia’s regional administration in Barcelona, and arrested an official in charge of the region’s economy, Josep Maria Jové, said spokesman. </s> BERLIN: Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is to appear in court Monday following his arrest in Germany which triggered a wave of protests in Catalonia where thousands of separatists faced off with police.

German police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday, after he crossed the border from Denmark, under a European warrant issued by Spain. The arrest comes five months after Puigdemont went on the run as Spanish prosecutors sought to charge him with sedition and rebellion in the wake of a vote by the Catalan parliament to declare independence. According to his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, he was on his way to Belgium, where he fled after Spanish authorities moved to impose direct rule over Catalonia.

Puigdemont will be brought before a German judge Monday to confirm his identity and a court will then decide if he is to remain in custody pending extradition proceedings.

"It will take place in the course of the day, probably in the afternoon," a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office for Schleswig-Holstein state told AFP.

Calling the situation "very delicate", Alonso-Cuevillas told Catalonia's Rac1 radio it was "very likely that he will not be allowed to leave Germany".

Clashes erupted as protesters took to the streets in Catalonia on Sunday following his arrest. Catalan police decked out in riot gear shoved and hit demonstrators with batons to keep the crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government's representative in Barcelona, the capital of the wealthy northeastern region. Officers fired warning shots in the air to try to contain the demonstrators, who pushed large recycling containers towards police. Some people threw glass bottles, cans and eggs at police. Some 90 people were slightly injured during the protests in Barcelona, including 22 police officers, emergency services said. Another seven people were injured at a protest in Lleida, about 150 kilometres west of Barcelona and one person was injured in Tarragona to the south.

It is the latest chapter in a secession saga that has bitterly divided Catalans and triggered Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

The case lands an unwanted diplomatic hot potato in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's lap less than two weeks after her new government was sworn in. Her spokesman insisted Monday that the decision on Puigdemont's extradition rested solely in the hands of the German regional justice authorities, while Spain had the right to decide how to handle the accusations against him and the broader Catalonia issue.

"Spain is a democratic state based on the rule of law. The German government is convinced that a solution to the Catalonia conflict has to be found within Spain's legal and constitutional order," he said.

When asked whether the case would weigh on relations with Spain, Seibert responded with a simple "no".

"It angers us that they arrested Puigdemont, he is our highest representative," 22-year-old architecture student Judit Carapena told AFP at the Barcelona protest.

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent appealed for calm in an address broadcast on regional television.

"I have no doubt that Catalan society will act as it always has, with non-violence," he said.

Aside from Puigdemont, nine other Catalan separatist leaders are in jail in Spain over the region's failed bid for independence. His arrest came two days after Spain's supreme court issued international arrest warrants for 13 Catalan separatists including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull. The court said they would be prosecuted for "rebellion", a charge which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Twelve more face less serious charges like disobedience. Issuing the warrant for Puigdemont on Friday, Judge Pablo Llarena accused the ousted Catalan leader of organising an independence referendum in October last year despite a ban from Madrid.

The vote had been swiftly followed by the Catalan parliament's declaration of independence on October 27.

"It angers us that they arrested Puigdemont, he is our highest representative," 22-year-old architecture student Judit Carapena told AFP at the protest.

Spain's central government should not "sing victory because it is not the end of separatism, far from it", she added. Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent appealed for calm in an address broadcast on regional television. "I have no doubt that Catalan society will act as it always has, with non-violence," he said.

Aside from Puigdemont, nine other Catalan separatist leaders are in jail in Spain over the region's failed bid for independence. His arrest comes two days after Spain's supreme court issued international arrest warrants for 13 Catalan separatists including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull.

The court said they would be prosecuted for "rebellion", a charge which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Twelve more face less serious charges like disobedience. Issuing the warrant for Puigdemont on Friday, Judge Pablo Llarena accused the ousted Catalan leader of organising an independence referendum in October last year despite a ban from Madrid. The vote had been swiftly followed by the Catalan parliament's declaration of independence on October 27.

As Spanish authorities moved in to impose direct rule over the region, Puigdemont and four other separatist leaders fled to Belgium. A sixth one fled the country on Friday, reportedly to Switzerland. Hours after Puigdemont was detained in Germany, a spokesman from Police Scotland said one of them, Clara Ponsati, who has since gone to Scotland and is wanted for both rebellion and misuse of public funds, was "making arrangements" to surrender to authorities there. Puigdemont had been visiting Finland since Thursday, but slipped out of the Nordic country before Finnish police could detain him. Elsa Artadi, a lawmaker with Puigdemont's Together for Catalonia party, said that he should fight his extradition.

"Spain does not guarantee a fair trial; only revenge and repression," she wrote on Twitter.

While separatist parties won Catalonia's regional elections in December called by Madrid, they have been unable to elect a president and form a government as they have picked candidates who are now either in exile, in jail or facing prosecution. After Puigdemont was forced to withdraw his bid for the presidency as he could not return to Spain without facing arrest, another pro-independence leader Jordi Sanchez followed suit when a judge refused to let him out of jail to be sworn in. The third candidate, Turull, was placed in custody on Friday.

Fresh regional elections will be triggered if a new leader is not elected by May 22. </s> BARCELONA, Spain — The Latest on Catalan independence activists (all times local):

A lawyer representing former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and five other Catalan politicians who have been charged in Spain for violent rebellion has appealed to the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee to help defend their democratic rights.

Nico Krisch denounced a “grave interference in the democratic order” linked to the charges against Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium, as well as Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull. The five are being held in pre-trial detention in Spain.

The Catalan politicians have been charged and suspended from office by Spain’s Supreme Court for their roles in organizing an independence referendum in Catalonia 14 months ago.

The effort announced Thursday seeks the Geneva-based committee’s intervention to help ensure their democratic right to exercise their parliamentary mandate.

A spokeswoman for four jailed Catalan separatist leaders says they are abandoning their hunger strike more than two weeks after starting it because they consider that their protest has achieved its goals.

Speaking on behalf of the politicians, who are awaiting trial for their part in last year’s attempt to secede from Spain, Pilar Calvo said Thursday the strike has drawn attention to the separatists’ plight and prompted Spain’s constitutional Court to review some of their appeals, which enables them to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Pro-independence activist-turned-politician Jordi Sanchez and former Catalan cabinet member Jordi Turull began their hunger strike on Dec. 1. Ex-regional ministers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn joined two days later.

The constitutional Court had said the appeals were following the normal judicial calendar. </s> MADRID: Catalonian leaders on Friday appealed to the Spanish government for dialogue to avert an impending political crisis over a planned referendum on independence as Madrid took measures to stop state cash being used to fund the vote.

Police also intervened to stop a meeting organised by a pro-independence Catalan party, the first public police crackdown on the process.

The government of the wealthy northeastern region has pledged to hold a referendum on breaking away from Spain on Oct. 1 in defiance of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has declared the event illegal and is bringing the weight of the state to bear to prevent it.

In a letter released on Friday, regional president Carles Puigdemont and Barcelona mayor Ada Colau wrote to Rajoy and Spain's King Felipe saying the state had mounted "an unprecedented repression offensive".

The letter called for "political dialogue, based on the legitimacy we all have, to make possible something that in a democracy is never a problem and even less a crime: listening to the voice of the people".

The government said it had not received the letter.

"To talk about dialogue when the only thing the Catalan government has wanted for months, years, is a referendum come what may, seems like a threat," government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told a news conference.

Shortly after Puigdemont and Colau's appeal, the Budget Ministry said the uncertainty created by the stand-off could damage the economy and push up sovereign borrowing costs. Some investors sold Spanish government bonds and switched to Italian debt earlier this week.

Also on Friday, the government passed measures to gain more control over how the regional administration spends its money in a bid to stop it from using state cash to pay for the ballot.

Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said the Catalan authorities could not be trusted to spend the money on public services rather than the planned vote.

The central government made arrangements to take over the funding of most essential public services if Puigdemont failed to guarantee, within 48 hours of the measures coming into force, that public cash was not being used to fund the referendum.

In Vitoria-Gasteiz in northern Spain, police interrupted a meeting held by the small pro-Catalan independence CUP party.

The CUP meeting in a civic building in the capital of the Basque Country, which also has a separatist movement, finished early after police arrived. Participants waved ballot papers and flags as they left.

The planned referendum would be the culmination of many years of campaigning by the independence movement.

Most of Catalonia's 5.5 million voters want to have a say on the region's relationship with Spain but the independence cause has lost support in recent years and surveys now indicate less than half the population would choose full self-rule.

The referendum would pose the question "Do you want Catalonia to be an independent republic?" to all Spanish citizens living in Catalonia. Leaders have said the assembly would declare independence within 48 hours of a "yes" vote.

Puigdemont has said no minimum turnout will be required to make the result binding.

Rajoy, who is due to attend an event for his ruling People's Party (PP) in Barcelona, Spain's second-biggest city, later on Friday, has said the government would come down with all the force of the law to ensure no referendum goes ahead.

Two new laws passed by the Catalan assembly paving the way for the vote have been suspended while state judges consider whether holding it would breach Spain's constitution, which says the country is indivisible.

King Felipe was widely quoted as praising Spain's democracy and social harmony at an awards ceremony on Wednesday, saying "the constitution will prevail over any rupture in that".

Mayor Colau gave a boost to the referendum campaign on Thursday with a message that the vote would go ahead in Barcelona, without civil servants involved risking their jobs.

Courts have already suspended from office and levelled millions of euros in fines at Catalan politicians who organised a non-binding referendum in 2014, which returned a "yes" vote on a low turnout.
Spanish police raid Catalan government offices and arrest Catalan officials as part of the effort to halt a banned referendum on independence. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont says, "The Spanish state has by all rights intervened in Catalonia’s government and has established emergency rule."