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> The Spanish government is asking the country's constitutional court to suspend a bid by leaders in Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence.

Prime minister Mariano Rajoy made the announcement after an urgent meeting with members of his cabinet.

He said the vote, planned for October 1, is illegal and an attack on Spain's and Catalonia's institutional order.

In a televised appearance, the conservative leader said the vote does not have the democratic protections needed to be considered a referendum and promised it would not take place.

He also branded a parliamentary showdown on Wednesday to approve the referendum's legal framework a "political perversion" by the leaders of the Catalan government.

Earlier, Spain's leading prosecutor said criminal suits are being lodged to prosecute Catalan officials responsible for scheduling the vote on independence.

Chief state prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza said two different lawsuits are in the works, one that seeks to punish members of Catalonia's parliament who allowed the debate and vote on the legal framework of the referendum, and a separate one against the executive branch of the regional government, whose members officially called the referendum.

He said the officials could be charged with disobedience, abuse of power and embezzlement.

The state prosecutor's office has also instructed officials and police forces in Catalonia - the north-eastern region whose capital is Barcelona - to investigate and stop any actions taken towards the celebration of the referendum. </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> 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 — The Latest on the Catalan government's bid to hold an independence referendum (all times local):

Spain's top prosecutor says criminal suits are being lodged to prosecute Catalan officials responsible for scheduling a vote on independence that authorities see as breaching the country's top laws.

Chief state prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza says two different lawsuits are in the works, one that seeks to punish members of Catalonia's parliament who allowed the debate and vote on the legal framework of the planned Oct. 1 referendum, and a separate one against the executive branch of the regional government, whose members officially called the referendum.

He said the officials could be charged, among other things, with disobedience, abuse of power and embezzlement.

The state prosecutor's office has also instructed officials and police forces in Catalonia — the northeastern region whose capital is Barcelona — to investigate and stop any actions taken toward the celebration of the referendum.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's office says members of his cabinet are meeting Thursday to react to plans by Catalan leaders who have scheduled a vote on the region's secession from Spain.

Rajoy is also discussing the crisis separately with leaders of the two main opposition parties, his office announced, in an effort to project political unity against the separatists' defiance.

The government is seeking to stop the Oct. 1 vote by appealing to the country's court, which has previously ruled that a referendum can only be called with the approval of central authorities. Other possible measures have not been disclosed.

Judges in Spain's top court are also considering a request by Rajoy to punish members of the regional Catalan parliament who on Wednesday allowed the passing of a legal framework for the referendum. </s> The leader of a pro-Catalan independence party wanted for questioning by the Spanish authorities for her alleged role in a banned separatist referendum and its consequences, for which she could face charges of rebellion, has fled to Switzerland, she told journalists Tuesday.

Anna Gabriel of the left-wing Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), the third separatist power in the regional Catalan parliament which supported the government of Carles Puigdemont until it was deposed by the Spanish state in the wake of the controversial independence declaration last year, said she would not travel to Madrid, where she was due to attend a hearing on Wednesday at the Supreme Court. </s> A leading politician from Catalonia’s pro-independence movement has fled Spain, claiming she will not get a fair trial over her alleged role in the region’s declaration of independence last year.

Anna Gabriel, a well-known former deputy in the Catalan parliament for the hard-left CUP party, has headed to Switzerland rather than go to Madrid this week to face charges in Spain’s Supreme Court.

“Since I will not have a fair trial at home, I have looked for a country that can protect my rights,” Ms Gabriel told Swiss newspaper Le Temps on Tuesday.

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“I won’t go to Madrid. I’m wanted for my political activities and the government press has already declared me guilty.”

In a television interview, Ms Gabriel said she was considering asking for permanent political asylum in Switzerland should there be an extradition request from Spain, saying she will be more useful to her party in Geneva than “behind bars”. She also said that she has regularly received death threats from unspecified individuals.

Shortly after a failed unilateral declaration of independence was made by the Catalan parliament last autumn, the region’s former president Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium with four former cabinet ministers. Mr Puigdemont, who has also ignored a court summons, faces similar possible charges to Ms Gabriel of sedition and rebellion.

So far, four separatists have been imprisoned pending sedition charges, including the former regional vice-president, Oriol Junqueras.

A high number of pro-independence leaders currently face possible trials in Spain, most due to take place later this year. Another CUP politician Mireia Boya was also due to appear in court on Wednesday, as was former Catalan president Artur Mas on Tuesday. Both were set to make statements to the judge about the banned pro-independence referendum on 1 October.

The CUP has been one of the most hardline supporters of independence, and its fragile alliance with more moderate separatist parties was instrumental in allowing the nationalists to hold a narrow majority in the currently dissolved Catalan parliament.

Ms Gabriel was known to be in Switzerland since last Saturday. It was initially reported that she had travelled to Geneva to work with a local international human rights lawyer to prepare her defence.

Earlier this week Ines Arrimadas, head of the pro-unionist party Ciudadanos in Catalonia, had described Ms Gabriel’s departure for Switzerland as another example the independence leaders “trying to save themselves”. “They’d tried to sell the idea of the [Catalan] Republic and that we’d all be rich and happy and now they’re making a break for it,” she said.

The CUP, meanwhile, have insisted that Ms Gabriel’s trial was politically motivated, and expressed their support for their former MP.

While not part of the EU, Switzerland does have an extradition pact with Spain, although it is not clear if the charges that could affect Ms Gabriel are included in it. </s> A Spanish Supreme Court judge has charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians, including fugitive former regional president Carles Puigdemont, with rebellion for their attempt to declare independence from Spain.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge has charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians, including fugitive former regional president Carles Puigdemont, with rebellion for their attempt to declare independence from Spain.

Rebellion charges are punishable with up to 30 years in prison under Spanish law. In a court ruling issued on Friday, Judge Llarena said that 25 Catalans in total will be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

Others charged with rebellion were former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, who is already in pre-trial detention; seven other members of the ousted Catalan government; former Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell; jailed separatist activists Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart; and the leader of the left-republican ERC party, Marta Rovira, who defied the judge’s summons and announced on Friday that she was fleeing Spain. In a letter addressed to her party followers and posted on ERC’s website, Rovira did not say whether she had left Spain already or where she might go.

“Today I undertake a hard road, a path that, unfortunately, so many others that preceded us have had to take,” Rovira wrote, adding: “The path of exile.” Five other Catalan politicians, including Puigdemont, fled to Brussels following the failed secession attempt in late October.

An anti-establishment party’s former politician, Anna Gabriel, fled to Switzerland earlier this year. The unity of Spain is enshrined in the constitution, which says the country is “indivisible”, and courts have blocked Catalonia’s independence efforts at every turn.

Catalan presidential candidate Jordi Turull, right, and former cabinet member Josep Rull arrive at the Supreme Court in Madrid (Francisco Seco/AP) The judge also required the 14 ex-members of the Catalan cabinet to pay 2.1 million euros (£1.8 million) as a deposit before the trial establishes whether they need to pay back misused public funds. That figure includes 1.6 million euros that, according to the judicial investigation, were used to pay for the October 1 referendum that set the turbulent events in motion.

Six of the politicians were summoned to court on Friday – an indication that the judge may later in the day order them jailed pending trial. They include Jordi Turull, a former minister of the ousted regional cabinet, who on Thursday failed in his bid to be elected as the region’s new president.

The semi-autonomous region has been without a leader for nearly five months after central authorities took control following October’s illegal independence declaration. Puigdemont indicated his resolve was not shaken by the charges. “Let’s see what happens tomorrow, what happens today. Every day things change,” Puigdemont said in Helsinki, where he was on a visit.

He also aimed criticism at the judge’s decision, suggesting Judge Llarena was influenced by the political climate. “It is not right for a judge to do politics,” Puigdemont said. Judge Llarena described the case as “an attack on the constitutional state that, through the desire to impose a change in the form of government for Catalonia and the rest of the country, is of unusual gravity and persistence”. </s> BARCELONA—The Spanish government on Wednesday asked a top court to block the Catalan regional government’s bid to hold a referendum on independence, the latest clash in what has become Spain’s most pressing political issue.

Lawmakers in Catalonia’s regional parliament were debating proposed legislation to convene a referendum on independence when Spain’s deputy prime minister said in televised remarks that the government wouldn’t...
Spain plans to sue leading members of the Catalan Parliament over the proposed independence referendum in Catalonia.