Unprecedented and historic — that is how the Supreme Court trial of a dozen Catalan separatist leaders that ended today is being described.

The proceedings, which began in February, saw them face charges of rebellion, disobedience and misuse of public funds, all related to the independence referendum held on October 1, 2017.

The vote was declared illegal by the Spanish government, which moved to punish those involved immediately.

The high-profile trial — that has heard from more than 300 witnesses and rejected at least 50 — came to an end on Wednesday with the final statements of the defendants.

A verdict is expected in the autumn.

READ MORE: Catalan Separatists' trial: How they got here and what's next? | Euronews Answers

“The nuclear question is whether or not there has been violence that integrates the crime of rebellion,” said the spokesman for the professional association for Spanish judges Judges for Democracy (Juezas y Jueces para la Democracia) Ignacio González Vega.

He believes that “accusations are still based on the fact that (the declaration of independence on October 1) was a planned plot spread out through time with episodes of violence while the defence still argues that the declaration of independence was made without any violence.”

González Vega doesn’t recall any other trial like this one that was broadcast live on television from beginning to end.

“This is a way for citizens to supervise the jurisdictional activity of the Spanish courts and that is enough motivation to forgo an international observer,” noted González Vega.

Transparency was key for a trial that many independentists have been calling a "farce". It became a test for the public image of the Spanish judicial system, which the spokesman defended: “It responds to European standards on justice and preserves rights and guarantees.”

González Vega believes that “political pressure cannot be ignored” but that the experience and professionalism of the judges make them immune to these pressures. </s> MADRID — Spain’s Supreme Court is stripping six prominent Catalan politicians of public office for trying to make the northeastern region of the country independent.

Judge Pablo Llarena also ruled Tuesday that the six secessionists be sent to trial on charges of rebellion, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

Those charged include former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is fighting extradition from Germany, and former regional Vice-President Oriol Junqueras.

Llarena left it up to the Catalan regional parliament, where the rebellion defendants now are lawmakers, whether to replace them.

Llarena was tasked with investigating what took place in Catalonia in October, when Puigdemont’s government disobeyed a court ban on holding a secession vote and the regional parliament unilaterally declared independence.

The events triggered Spain’s most severe political crisis in decades. </s> Pro-independence activists plan to assemble giant TV screens in town squares across Catalonia so that locals can follow events taking place several hundred kilometres away, in the supreme court in Madrid on Wednesday. These preparations reflect the enormous interest in the trial of 12 Catalan leaders which is coming to a close after four months.

The defendants face accusations of crimes related to their region’s failed bid to secede in 2017 and this is widely seen as the most important, and politically charged, court case in Spain’s modern era.

The charges presented by state prosecutors against nine of the accused include rebellion and sedition. Former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras could face up to 25 years in prison, while rank-and-file independence leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart could face 17-year sentences. All nine have been in preventive custody for well over a year.

The three other defendants, who face lesser charges, have been free on bail. On Wednesday, the accused will be allowed to give final statements to the court before it adjourns.

Despite the exhaustive scale of the trial, it seems to have done little to shift the respective positions of the plaintiffs and the defence.

“More than 50 sessions, 422 witnesses, five pieces of expert evidence and some extensive documentary evidence have left the two sides exactly where they were at the start of the trial,” noted El País. Nor has the trial altered the view of Spain’s political parties or public opinion on the matter, the newspaper added.

The plaintiffs – the public prosecutor, the state lawyer and the far-right Vox party – have presented this as a clear-cut case of criminality. Last week, public prosecutor Javier Zaragoza appeared to harden his stance by describing the 2017 independence drive as “a coup d’état”.

His colleague, Jaime Moreno, said: “I don’t think that from what we have heard or seen in this trial that it can be concluded that there was not violence.”

Both claims seek to justify the rebellion charge, focusing on street demonstrations in Barcelona in September of 2017 and an outlawed referendum on independence 10 days later. Whether or not violence was used in those events has been a major bone of contention throughout the case, with defence lawyers insisting that the independence movement is by nature peaceful.

Suggesting otherwise is both “scandalously untrue and dishonest”, wrote Cuixart in an opinion article published in La Vanguardia newspaper at the weekend. “Non-violent action is not violence. Not here or anywhere.”

Another key issue in the trial has been the role of the Catalan police force, and whether or not they resisted or abetted the regional government’s plans to hold the controversial referendum. One of the trial’s biggest surprises was the assertion by the former Catalan police chief, Josep Lluís Trapero, that he was ready and willing to arrest separatist politicians following a unilateral independence declaration that was approved by the regional parliament.

Several of the accused have played down the significance of that declaration. For example, Meritxell Borràs, a former Catalan minister who faces charges of misuse of public funds and disobedience, testified that it was not an effective statement of secession but “a political declaration without legal or juridical consequences”.

The defence’s case was indirectly bolstered last month when a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recommended that Spain immediately release Junqueras, Cuixart and Sànchez and pay them compensation. The group’s findings fed into a broader claim by the independence movement that not only is the trial unfounded, but that it is based on a political premise and that the court case reflects glaring weaknesses in Spanish democracy.

“This is a political trial that has been presented as a legal one,” says Gonzalo Boye, lawyer for the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who escaped the Spanish justice system by fleeing to Belgium.

“It says to me a lot about the lack of checks and balances that exist in the Spanish system.”

The Spanish government and judicial authorities take the opposing view.

Justice minister Dolores Delgado lauded “a trial held with all guarantees, with a level of transparency that puts us at the top of and in the vanguard of international judicial systems”.

This propaganda battle over Spain’s democratic credentials is expected to continue at least until the verdict is announced, probably in the autumn. Even then, the case is unlikely to be closed, with defendants expected to appeal to the constitutional court and then the European Court of Human Rights if they face an unfavourable verdict.

With a general election and European and local elections all taking place in the meantime, the trial has had an inevitable influence on Spain’s politics, helping to ensure that the Catalan territorial crisis has remained at the heart of political debate. The perceived injustice of the case and particularly the long spells of preventive custody for defendants have united and galvanised the independence movement, which blames the acting government of Socialist Pedro Sánchez for failing to rein in the judiciary.

“The Catalan government [and the independence movement] have spent months thinking about how to deal with this trauma and how to capitalise on the court verdict in a political way,” says Catalan writer Jordi Amat. “Without a doubt, for those affected this might be a tragedy but that tragedy could have political consequences.”

Catalan president Quim Torra has not ruled out calling a regional election once the verdict is announced in a bid to channel separatist outrage. However, a more familiar response will be seen this week when demonstrations are called across Catalonia to protest against the trial. </s> MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s State Attorney dropped a call for rebellion charges to be brought against jailed Catalan independence leaders on Friday, and said it would seek lesser charges of sedition and misappropriation of funds.

Earlier, the Spanish prosecutor said it would seek rebellion charges for all nine jailed leaders, with a maximum sentence of 25 years for the leader of pro-Catalan-independence party ERC Oriol Junqueras.

The State Attorney said it would seek up to 12 years for Junqueras and lesser sentences for the others accused. </s> MADRID — The simmering conflict over Catalan independence roared back to the center of Spanish attention on Tuesday, as 12 people went on trial for their roles in the botched secession attempt of 2017, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez scrambled to keep the issue from toppling his government.

The eagerly anticipated trial before the Spanish Supreme Court in Madrid has drawn enormous attention and is being broadcast live on national television, but it could soon be overshadowed by the political crisis unfolding just blocks away, in Parliament.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sánchez’s minority Socialist government faces a crucial parliamentary vote on his national budget. If a majority of lawmakers reject it, including Catalan lawmakers who have so far backed the prime minister, he will almost certainly be forced to call elections.

With Spain’s government hanging in the balance, the Supreme Court is under intense pressure to demonstrate that it can remain impartial and above politics in a case that has ignited passions and recriminations. The Catalan separatist leaders were indicted on charges that include rebellion, after holding an independence referendum and then declaring independence in October 2017 — moves the Spanish courts ruled unconstitutional. </s> MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s public prosecutor on Friday sought jail terms of up to 25 years for nine leaders of Catalonia’s independence movement, filing charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds over a failed secession bid that they spearheaded last year.

But the State Attorney - a separate government-appointed body also prosecuting in the case - said rebellion charges should be dropped in favor of the lesser offence of sedition and that it would seek maximum sentences of 12 years.

Madrid imposed direct rule on the wealthy northeastern region in October 2017 after it declared its independence on the basis of a referendum that Spanish courts ruled was unconstitutional.

The nine politicians were jailed without bail for their role in that campaign and remain in custody pending trail.

The prosecutor is also seeking lesser charges for another nine others accused of involvement in the campaign who have not been jailed ahead of the trial.

The prosecutor sought 25 years in jail for Oriol Junqueras, the leader of pro-Catalan-independence party ERC, it said in a statement.

It recommended sentences of up to 17 years on the same charges for the other eight Catalan politicians.

The leaders’ defense team must present its case in the next few weeks and the trial is expected to begin in January.

There was no immediate comment from the Catalan regional government. Its head Quim Torra will address the media on Friday afternoon. </s> Spain's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal lodged by 15 Catalan leaders involved in an illegal referendum for regional independence and confirmed that they should be prosecuted for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, the country's judiciary said Wednesday.

Among those facing prosecution are the ex-president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain and is currently living in exile in Germany, and his vice-president Oriol Junqueras, who is currently in pretrial detention in a jail near Madrid. </s> Madrid (AFP) - Spain's public prosecutor's office said Friday that it may appeal a German court's decision to reject the extradition of Catalonia's ousted separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to the European Court of Justice.

The German court had issued the preliminary ruling on Thursday, refusing Spain's request to send Puigdemont back to be judged for rebellion over his role in the region's failed secession bid last October.

But in a rare statement on a foreign court's decision, the Spanish office said it was "certain" that the German court's final ruling will respect the principle of "mutual recognition" of judicial decisions that is inherent in the European arrest warrant system.

"In any case, the prosecutor's office will study the possibility of exercising the relevant actions to protect and defend the European legal order... before the European Court of Justice," it added.

Based in Luxembourg, the European Court of Justice enforces the law of the 28-nation European Union.

The German court ruled that rebellion was not punishable under German law, and the closest equivalent, high treason, did not apply because Puigdemont's actions were not accompanied by violence.

But the court is still to decide whether to send the former Catalan president to Spain to face trial for alleged misuse of public funds.

Even if he is extradited on the lesser charge, the German court's refusal to accept the rebellion charge means under European law Puigdemont cannot be prosecuted in Spain for the offence, which several Spanish law professors and rights groups have called extreme.

A senior judge close to the case told AFP before the statement was released that a "protest note" was being prepared in response to the German court's decision.

The court was "undermining European judicial cooperation", the judge said, adding that it was up to Spain's Supreme Court "to interpret the concept of violence" in this case.

The Supreme Court also said in a statement that its judge Pablo Llarena, who is in charge of investigating the role played by Catalonia's separatist leaders, was considering consulting the European Court of Justice on the procedure for extradition among EU member states.

Puigdemont walked out of a German prison on Friday following the ruling, calling for "political dialogue" with Madrid to resolve the row over the region's independence bid. </s> Spain's public prosecutor on Friday called for charges against jailed Catalan political leaders involved in a push for independence for the north eastern region to include rebellion, disobedience and misappropriation of funds.

MADRID: Spain's public prosecutor on Friday sought up to 25 years in jail for nine leaders of Catalonia's independence movement, filing charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds over an illegal secession bid they spearheaded last year.

But the State Attorney - a separate government-appointed body also prosecuting in the case - said rebellion charges should be dropped in favour of the lesser offence of sedition and that it would seek maximum sentences of 12 years.

The conservative government of Mariano Rajoy imposed direct rule on the wealthy northeastern region in October 2017 after it declared its independence on the basis of a referendum that Spanish courts ruled was unconstitutional.

Rajoy's administration was ousted in a no-confidence vote in June and replaced by a Socialist government under Pedro Sanchez.

While refusing to countenance any move towards Catalan independence, Sanchez has adopted a more conciliatory approach towards the region than his predecessor.

With the Socialists holding only 84 of 350 parliamentary seats, he is also relying on the support of Catalan lawmakers to get his 2019 budget passed through the house.

The nine Catalan politicians were jailed without bail for their role in last year's secession drive - which laid bare deep divisions between the region's pro- and anti-Spain camps - and remain in custody pending a Supreme Court trial.

The prosecutor sought 25 years in jail for Oriol Junqueras, the leader of pro-Catalan-independence party ERC, it said in a statement.

It recommended sentences of up to 17 years on the same charges for the other eight jailed Catalan politicians, and is seeking lesser charges for nine others accused of involvement in the campaign who are not in custody.

There was no immediate comment from the Catalan regional government. Its head Quim Torra will address the media on Friday afternoon.

The leaders' defence team must present its case in the next few weeks and the trial is expected to begin in January.

The prosecutor is also seeking up to 11 years in prison for four others, including the head of the Catalan police at the time of the independence declaration, in a separate High Court case.
The Supreme Court of Spain confirms the prosecution of the independentists leaders accused of the crime of rebellion, embezzlement and disobedience.