A book about Spain’s drug-smuggling underworld banned last week by a Madrid court has been brought to readers online as a cut-and-pasted text from Spanish classic Don Quixote.

Kicking against what they consider outdated censorship, a booksellers’ association has reacted to the seizure of the non-fiction book ‘Fariña’ by launching a website to replicate it word for word.

The website includes a digital tool that searches for and locates the 80,000 words that make up the forbidden manuscript from within the text of Don Quixote, extracting them one by one to recompose the banned book. On Friday after two days online, the website had racked up over 30,000 hits, according to the Booksellers Guild of Madrid.

“We discovered that all the words of ‘Fariña' were contained one way or another in Don Quixote, and it was just a case of finding a mechanism to make them appear in the right order,” explains Fernando Valverde, the Guild secretary.

Words that weren’t around in the early 17th century and some proper nouns are made up by the search engine syllable by syllable from Miguel de Cervantes’ gigantic tome.

It is not clear whether the ruse is a legal way for people to read it. </s> LISBON, Portugal — The Latest on the freedom of speech controversy centred on a banned book in Spain (all times local):

A website that defied Spanish court orders banning a book investigating drug trafficking in Spain has been taken down.

The Madrid Booksellers’ Guild earlier launched an online tool that automatically pulls some 80,000 words from Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel “Don Quixote,” and pieces them together to recreate the contents of the banned work.

But the court struck back. The website was no longer available Tuesday, less than two weeks after its launch. A one-sentence explanation on the home page said it was removed on court orders.

The website was the latest flare-up in a wider legal and political dispute over freedom of expression in Spain.

When Miguel de Cervantes wrote “Don Quixote” in the 17th century, he couldn’t have imagined that the novel would be used as a weapon in a modern battle over freedom of speech in Spain.

In defiance of a court order banning a book that investigates drug trafficking in Spain, the Madrid Booksellers’ Guild has launched an online tool that automatically pulls some 80,000 words from the classic novel to piece together the contents of the banned work.

The booksellers say the tool “demonstrates how ridiculous and anachronistic” the judge’s banning order was in a digital age.

The booksellers’ move is the latest flare-up in a wider legal and political dispute over freedom of expression that has been rumbling in Spain in recent months. </s> LISBON, Portugal (AP) - When Miguel de Cervantes wrote "Don Quixote" in the 17th century, he couldn't have imagined that the novel would be used as a weapon in a modern battle over freedom of speech in Spain.

In defiance of a court order banning a book that investigates drug trafficking in Spain, the Madrid Booksellers' Guild has launched an online tool that automatically pulls some 80,000 words from the classic novel to piece together the contents of the banned work.

"We feel that this prohibition of a book, which is something that hasn't happened in Spain for more than 30 years, is an attack on our freedoms," Fernando Valverde of the Booksellers' Guild told The Associated Press.

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2018 file photo, friends and supporters of rap singer Pablo Hasel, whose real surname is Rivadulla give him support at the National court where he appeared accused of tweeting messages between 2014-16 in defense of members of ETA and GRAPO, two armed groups ranked by Spain as terror organizations, and also insulting police in Madrid, Spain. Messages on banner read 'Without freedom of speech there is no democracy' 'Absolution for Pablo Hasel and Kaiet' Total amnesty'. The Madrid Booksellers' Guild is using a digital tool that automatically pulls around 80,000 words from Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote," a classic of Spanish and western literature, to recreate online a recent court-banned book. The tool seeks to sidestep a judge's prohibition last month of the book that investigates drug-trafficking in Spain. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)

The booksellers' move is the latest flare-up in a wider legal and political dispute over freedom of expression that has been rumbling in Spain in recent months. Other flashpoints include the cancellation of a photo exhibition on political prisoners, and prison sentences for rappers over lyrics deemed insulting to the Spanish royals.

The banned book controversy centers on "Farina" ("Flour," a slang term for cocaine,) published in 2015 by journalist Nacho Carretero. The book investigates drug smuggling in Galicia, a region in the northwestern corner of Spain, and was made into a Spanish TV series which premiered last month.

Among other things, the book recounts charges and court proceedings in cocaine investigations that involved a former Galician politician, Jose Bea Gondar.

Gondar accuses Carretero and his publisher, Libros del KO, of tarnishing his reputation. He wants references to him taken out of the book and 500,000 euros ($620,000) in damages.

A judge last month ordered a temporary ban on sales, which had reached around 35,000 copies, while the court considers the case.

The Madrid Booksellers' Guild this month launched "Finding Farina in Don Quixote," an online tool which it calls "a way of defending liberty and freedom of expression."

Clicking on a link on the www.findingfarina.com website gradually pulls up the first page of the book as the tool visibly grabs the words it needs from "Don Quixote" on the right hand side of the web page. It does the same for each new page of "Farina." For people's names and for words not used in Cervantes' time, it picks out syllables and sticks them together. It's not an easy read but Valverde, of the Madrid Booksellers' Guild, says that's not the point.

The tool "demonstrates how ridiculous and anachronistic" the judge's decision was in a digital age, he said.

The court has not yet reacted to the website's launch, he said.

It's one of several recent controversies about freedom of expression in Spain. Many were outraged that artistic license was being censored when prison sentences were slapped on Spanish rappers last month over lyrics that were deemed to be praising terror groups, encouraging violence and insulting the Spanish Crown and the police.

Also last month, a government-funded body running the venue for the prestigious Madrid's International Contemporary Art Fair was accused of censorship when it pulled a photo exhibition called "Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain." It argued that controversy over the exhibit was hogging public attention, but later apologized for the move and insisted it wasn't intended as censorship.

In another case, many people cheered when the European Court of Human Rights rebuffed the Spanish judiciary in a ruling against protections afforded by Spanish courts to the royal family. The European court earlier this month sided with two Spaniards who set fire in public to a photograph of Spain's king and queen, saying their protest amounted to freedom of expression. They were initially sentenced in Spain to 15 months in prison.

Some other similar controversies in Spain have stemmed from a crackdown on perceived terror threats and echo a debate that has been repeated in recent years across Europe.

Article 578 of the Spanish Criminal Code, punishing anyone who "glorifies terrorism," was expanded in 2015 after terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. It cast its net so wide that puppeteers purveying political satire, journalists, musicians and everyday users of social media have fallen foul of the law. Some believe the law went too far.

"Spain is emblematic of a disturbing trend which has seen states across Europe unduly restricting expression on the pretext of national security and stripping away rights under the guise of defending them," Eda Seyhan, Amnesty International's campaigner on counter-terrorism, said in a report earlier this month.

"People should not face criminal prosecution simply for saying, tweeting or singing something that might be distasteful or shocking," Amnesty International's report said. "Spain's broad and vaguely-worded law is resulting in the silencing of free speech and the crushing of artistic expression." </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Prof Pansati was greeted by supporters when she emerged from the court on Wednesday afternoon

A pro-independence Catalan politician who is being sought by the Spanish government has been released on bail by a Scottish court.

Prof Clara Ponsati was formally arrested after arriving voluntarily at an Edinburgh police station.

She later appeared from custody at an initial extradition hearing at the city's sheriff court.

Bail was not opposed, and she will now embark on a legal fight against being returned to face trial in Spain.

Prof Ponsati, who says the charges against her are politically-motivated, was asked to surrender her passport.

The authorities in Madrid issued a European Arrest Warrant after accusing her of rebellion - defined under Spanish law as being involved in a violent uprising - and misappropriation of public funds.

The allegations relate to her involvement in organising last year's Catalan independence referendum, which was ruled illegal by the Spanish courts.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who faces similar charges, was taken into custody in Germany at the weekend.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prof Ponsati's lawyer read out a statement when she arrived to hand herself in to police earlier in the day

The hearing before Sheriff Nigel Ross lasted less than 10 minutes, with a number of Prof Ponsati's supporters present in the packed court room and many more gathered outside.

Among them were several prominent SNP politicians, including former Holyrood presiding officer Tricia Marwick.

Ms Marwick told BBC Scotland that it would be "impossible for Clara, and indeed for any of the other political prisoners" to have a fair trial in Spain as there was "absolutely no separation between the justiciary and the government".

'Grotesque distortion'

Speaking outside court, Prof Ponsati's lawyer Aamer Anwar said his client was opposing the extradition warrant from the Spanish Supreme Court and would "robustly deny the charges" against her.

He added: "The 52-page warrant included the crimes of rebellion - punishable by up to 25 years in prison - as well as the crime of misappropriation of public funds, punishable with up to eight years' imprisonment.

"Clara wishes for me to state that these charges are politically motivated and a grotesque distortion of the truth. She cannot believe that she is being held responsible for the violence that took place on the day of the referendum."

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The former Catalan education minister was formally arrested when she entered St Leonard's police station in Edinburgh

Mr Anwar said Prof Ponsati believes that the Catalan people "tried to express a democratic right to decide their own destiny" during the referendum.

And he said the only people that should be held responsible for the "brutal violence" was the Spanish police and state security forces who "attacked the Catalan people on behalf of the Spanish government".

He added: "She submits that Spain has not followed due process, cannot guarantee the independence of the judiciary and has repeatedly abused the human rights of the Catalan people."

Prof Ponsati turned herself in to officers at St Leonard's police station on Wednesday morning, before being taken to court.

She has thanked First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish government and other Scottish politicians for their "solidarity", with Mr Anwar saying Prof Ponsati believes "Scotland has been a true friend to Catalonia in her darkest hours".

An online crowdfunding appeal to pay Prof Ponsati's legal costs had raised about £170,000 by 16:00 on Wednesday. Her initial target was £40,000, but this was later increased to £200,000.

Who is Clara Ponsati?

Image copyright Reuters Image caption She fled to Brussels with Carles Puigdemont following the Catalan referendum

Prof Ponsati had been working as the director of the School of Economics and Finance at the University of St Andrews since January 2016, before being appointed as the Catalan government's education minister in July of last year.

She returned to work at St Andrews earlier this month, having been in Belgium since fleeing Spain with Catalonia's ex-leader Carles Puigdemont and three other former cabinet members following an unsuccessful bid to declare independence from Spain in October.

A Spanish judge issued arrest warrants on Friday for Prof Ponsati and the other fugitive politicians, including Mr Puigdemont, who was detained by police in Germany.

How likely is it that she will be extradited?

In almost all cases, there is a requirement that the allegations would amount to a criminal offence were it to have occurred in the UK.

Prof Ponsati's legal team could argue that rebellion is not a specific criminal offence in Scotland - although there is a crime of treason, which covers disloyalty to the Crown.

The extradition request could also be defeated if Prof Ponsati successfully argues that it is politically-motivated.

But extradition lawyer Karen Todner told BBC Scotland it is rare for European requests to be refused for this reason, because "as part of the European Union we are supposed to believe that all requests are fair and proper".

Regardless, the legal process is likely to take several months and could be challenged all the way to the High Court.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Supporters gathered outside the court ahead of Prof Ponsati's hearing

What does the Scottish government say?

Scotland's independence movement has close links to its Catalan counterpart, and the SNP is overwhelmingly supportive of Prof Ponsati's cause.

But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who is also the SNP leader, has not explicitly backed Catalan independence and has stressed that her Scottish government cannot intervene in the legal process.

Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly said she supports the right of the Catalan people to determine their own future, and has criticised the Spanish government's decision to arrest and imprison pro-independence Catalan politicians.

She added: "The fact that our justice system is legally obliged to follow due process in the determination of extradition requests does not change those views."

The SNP's leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, has requested a meeting with the Spanish ambassador in London to express the party's concern over the treatment of Prof Ponsati and other Catalan politicians. </s> "If there is one lesson to learn from this case, it is that the political exploitation of the legal system must end," lawyer Marie Dosé commented the day after client was declared not guilty in a case that started 10 years ago with 150 masked police officers raiding a libertarian commune in rural France.

The interior minister at the time, Michèle Alliot-Marie, claimed that an "ultraleft, anarcho-autonomous movement linked to sabotage" had been broken up and public prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin described the farmhouse's residents as "an invisible cell ... whose aim was armed struggle".

But on Thursday presiding magistrate Corinne Goetzmann declared the "Tarnac group, named after the village where they lived, a "fiction" and slammed police for "ruses and stratagems" in their attempts to obtain guilty verdicts against the eight accused.

In 2017 a court had already ordered the accusation of terrorism to be dropped.

This week Goetzman cleared the alleged ringleaders, Dosé's client Yildune Lévy and her former partner Julien Coupat, of accusations that they had sabotaged a railway line near Paris, only finding them guilty of refusing to give DNA samples and refusing to punish them even for that.

Five other accused, Elsa Hauck, Bertrand Deveaud, Manon Glibert, Benjamin Rosoux and Mathieu Burnel, were cleared of all charges, while a sixth, Christophe Becker, was given a four-month suspended sentence for receiving stolen documents and trying to falsify administrative documents and a 500-euro suspended fine for refusing to give a DNA sample.

Only Lévy and Deveaud were present in court for the verdict.

"We are white, young, of middle-class origin, with cultural capital," Lévy commented. "People with different first names, the Mamadoue, the Fatimas, how can they overcome what we have overcome?" </s> OTTAWA—The Supreme Court of Canada says a reporter must give the RCMP material he gathered for stories about an accused terrorist. The 9-0 decision is likely to be seen as a defeat for media that could leave them vulnerable to serving as investigative arms of the police.

In 2014, Vice Media reporter Ben Makuch wrote three articles about the involvement of Farah Shirdon, formerly of Calgary, with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Shirdon had left Canada for Turkey in March of that year. A month later, he appeared in an ISIL propaganda video that turned up on the internet. He tore up his Canadian passport, threw it into a fire and said, “With help from Allah, we are coming to slaughter you.” Exchanges between Makuch and Shirdon through a text-messaging service were crucial to the articles.

In 2015, the RCMP obtained a production order under the Criminal Code, directing Vice Media and Makuch to provide documents and data relating to communications with Shirdon, who might now be dead. Makuch brought an application to quash the production order, but it was dismissed — a decision upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Makuch’s case, which squarely pitted press freedoms against the investigative powers of police. In a previous case, the court had set out nine conditions for assessing the reasonableness of a search of a media outlet. Vice Media argued at the Supreme Court that lower courts had been incorrectly applying, or failing to apply, the balancing test.

Philip Tunley, a lawyer for Vice Media, told the high court last May there should be clear protections for the media when enforcement agencies come knocking. He said the result of current law and practice was “a chilling effect” on the media’s important role in gathering and publishing news in Canada. Federal lawyer Croft Michaelson told the hearing there was “no merit” to criticisms of the robust legal framework in place for deciding access to media materials. In its arguments, the Crown called the test a principled and flexible framework intended to curb any potential chilling effect that an order might have on the ability of the media to do its work. It said the courts had not been acting as rubber stamps that favoured the interests of law enforcement at the expense of freedom of expression. </s> A particularly contentious aspect of the legal process has been the preventive custody of Cuixart, Sánchez, Junqueras, and six others, who have all waited in jail for a trial whose date was only announced days before it was due to begin. The Spanish authorities have argued that their incarceration was due to flight risk—seven Catalan leaders fled abroad after the referendum to Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland—and to prevent continued illegal activities. But the trial delays since then have made the measure look increasingly excessive.

Another controversial feature is the rebellion charge against nine defendants. Rebellion is legally defined as “rising up, violently and publicly” against the Spanish state— the last conviction followed an attempted coup d’état in 1981. The Catalan independence movement, despite its many faults, has been characterized by peaceful protest. There have been some violent incidents, such as police cars being vandalized or a well-known unionist journalist being punched while he was live on air, but these have been rare, and never linked to the movement’s leaders themselves.

Ironically, the most violent scenes of the independence push were caused by Spanish riot police on the day of the 2017 referendum. Targeting several of the improvised voting stations, they smashed windows and doors, dragging some voters away and beating others. The Spanish interior ministry has refused to probe the actions of its police officers on that day. Barcelona’s leftist city hall has brought a lawsuit against 33 of them.

The Spanish judiciary does have a history of overreaction. The Audiencia Nacional, a court dedicated to countering terrorism and organized crime, has in the last two years issued jail sentences against several hip-hop artists due to the content of their songs and social media accounts. Among them is Josep Miquel Arenas, a young rapper known as Valtònyc, who was given a three-and-a-half-year sentence for glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy in his angry, anti-establishment songs. Shortly before beginning his sentence last year Arenas fled to Belgium. The Spanish authorities are now trying to extradite him. Rapper Pablo Hasél was given a two-year jail sentence on similar charges last year, for the content of several tweets and the lyrics to one of his songs. The sentence was subsequently reduced to nine months on appeal.

Joaquim Bosch, a magistrate and outspoken critic of the Spanish justice system, has warned of “an obvious erosion of freedom of speech” in Spain. Jueces para la Democracia (Judges for Democracy), the progressive magistrates’ association he represents, argues that Spanish laws are too vague on issues of terrorism or hate speech, giving free rein to over-zealous investigators.

The recent spate of freedom of speech cases is grist to the mill of the Catalan independence movement, which runs a slick PR machine. Arenas, for example, has been photographed several times posing with former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont—who oversaw the 2017 independence referendum and fled to Belgium shortly afterward—since they both left Spain. In addition, there have been a handful of other cases which have cast in doubt the judiciary’s independence from political interference.

In November, the Supreme Court performed an unprecedented U-turn. Having recently ruled that banks, not customers, should pay a mortgage tax, the court changed its mind, drawing accusations that it had caved in to pressures from the country’s financial powers.

Weeks later, in a separate case, Supreme Court magistrate Manuel Marchena withdrew his candidacy to head up Spain’s judicial governing body. A leaked text message from a conservative senator had emerged, apparently gloating at the fact that Marchena’s appointment would allow the right-wing Popular Party to control the court “from behind the scenes.” Marchena will nonetheless preside the panel of judges handling the Catalan independence leaders’ trial.

As a result, it has been easy for secessionists to present their conflict with Spain as one upholding democracy against repression. Yet in pursuing their dream of an independent republic, Catalan nationalists have occasionally neglected their much-vaunted democratic values.

In 2015, the pro-independence Catalan government treated a regional election as a plebiscite on the secession issue. In it, pro-independence parties won a narrow majority of seats in the regional parliament but fell short of a majority of the popular vote. Nonetheless, secessionists pushed ahead with their divisive roadmap as if they had secured an overwhelming mandate. Then, in September 2017, the pro-independence majority rode roughshod over parliamentary protocol to ram through laws laying the groundwork for the October referendum.

For Joan Coscubiela, a member of the Catalan parliament for the leftist Catalunya Sí que es Pot (Catalonia Yes We Can) coalition at the time, those parliamentary sessions “ended up installing in people’s minds the idea that democracy means the majority can do whatever they like, even if it means breaking the rules [and] trampling over the rights of the minority.”

Many Catalans have been dismayed at how the issue of separation from Spain has dominated their region’s political debate, distracting attention from more urgent matters, such as public healthcare and education.

The upcoming trial could see the figureheads of Catalonia’s failed independence bid pay a high price for such single-mindedness. But Spain’s judiciary will be up for evaluation as well. Spanish authorities have rejected calls for international observers, insisting that the justice system offers the guarantees and transparency necessary for such a high-pressure legal process. This trial’s ability to deliver on that promise could tell us a good deal about the health of Spanish democracy—and whether or not worries about it are justified. </s> Prosecutors are seeking a total of 375 years in prison for the accused, aged between 21 and 31 years old, on charges of "inflicting injuries of a terrorist-nature" and issuing "terrorist threats," alleging an atmosphere of constant "harassment and pressure" against police forces in the area.

But the defence argues this was a mere bar brawl in October 2016 in Alsasua, a town in Navarra, the northern region in Spain that neighbours the Basque Country and which Basque separatists -- including armed group ETA -- have long laid claim to.

The trial comes as critics raise the alarm over what they say is the disproportionate use of counter-terrorism laws in Spain, just days after a woman was arrested for "terrorism" in a probe on pro-independence activists in Catalonia who staged protests, including road blockades.

READ ALSO: Court probes Catalan independence activists for 'terrorism'

A judge subsequently released her and dropped the charge, opting for the lesser offence of "public disorder."

The two policemen allegedly beaten up in 2016 were off duty and had gone to the bar with their girlfriends, when they were reportedly set upon by locals in a fight that saw one of the officers go to hospital with a broken ankle.

In its ruling sending the case to trial, a judge from Spain's National Court, which deals with terror cases, said that at least two of the accused were part of a movement seeking to drive police out of town.

These types of movements were actively promoted by ETA when it targeted Spanish security forces, which it wanted out of what it considered its "country."

Ruben Mugica, lawyer for the Covite association of ETA victims that brought the case to court, said the severe charges were justified by "the context in which the attack happened."

He told Spanish radio that the atmosphere "of permanent harassment" during the decades of ETA's violent separatist campaign was still alive in some places today.

READ MORE: Spain's counter-terror law crushes satire: Amnesty International

The defendants, though, deny any form of concerted action, and some say they did not even assault the policemen.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, said that "while injuring people of course warrants criminal investigation, charges of terrorism are entirely inappropriate and must be dropped."

"This case is emblematic of the dangers that lurk within overly-broad and vaguely worded legislation, which can be used to criminalise behaviour that is far removed from any threat of terrorism." </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.
A Madrid court issues an order shutting down a website that uses extracts from Don Quixote to recreate the book Farina. Farina, an investigation of drug trafficking, is the subject of a freedom of speech debate after a court halted sales ahead of a libel case.