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> In Spain today, the trial of a group of Catalonian separatist leaders will end.

The trial started in February, but the road into the court system for the activists started long before then.

They're facing charges of rebellion, disobedience and misuse of public funds, all related to the independence referendum held on October first, 2017. The referendum was declared illegal by the Spanish government, which moved to punish those involved immediately.

By October 30th, 2017, the President of the newly declared Catalonian republic, Carlos Puigdemont, and his entire cabinet were charged with sedition.

Within days, eight ministers who had remained in the country were detained without bail - others were swept up by the justice system later that year. After being detained for more than a year, six of the jailed activists began a hunger strike in December of 2018 - it ended 20 days later.

And by February of this year, the case against them opened in Spain's Supreme Court. The trial has heard over 300 witnesses, and rejected at least 50.

The verdict is not expected until at least after the summer.

Euronews sums up the case in the report in the video player above </s> A four-month trial has ended for 12 Catalan separatists over their bid for independence from Spain but a verdict is not expected for months. </s> MADRID: Two jailed Catalan separatist leaders awaiting trial in a Spanish jail over their role in last year’s failed independence bid began a hunger strike on Saturday, their lawyer said.

Jordi Sanchez, the former head of the influential grassroots ANC independence movement, and Jordi Turull, a former minister in the Catalan regional government, are taking this step to “raise awareness” of their unfair treatment by Spain’s justice system, lawyer Jordi Pina told a news conference in Barcelona.

“I did not recommend this action, it is a decision of my clients and they have my full support,” he added.

In a statement read by Pina, the two men accused Spain’s Constitutional Court of blocking their appeals against their imprisonment from reaching the European Court of Human Rights. Pina said he did not know if the five other Catalan separatist leaders jailed in the Lledoners penitentiary located some 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of Barcelona would later join the hunger strike.

Spain’s Supreme Court in October ordered a total of 18 former Catalan separatist leaders to stand trial over last year’s declaration of independence.

Prosecutors are seeking jail terms of up to 25 years on charges of rebellion or misuse of public funds over the failed secession bid. The sensitive trial is expected to start in early 2019 and will focus on the attempt by Catalan leaders to break away from Spain in October 2017 by staging a referendum despite a court ban and subsequently proclaiming independence.

Nine of the separatists remain in pre-trial detention, including the seven at the Lledoners prison who have been in jail for the last eight to 13 months without trial.

The announcement of the hunger strike comes a day after the first photo of the seven jailed Catalan leaders at the Lledoners prison was released by grassroots pro-independence organisation Omnium Cultural.

The picture — which was splashed on the cover of Catalan newspapers on Saturday — shows the seven men smiling and wearing casual clothes in one of the courtyards of the prison.

Omnium Cultural said it released the picture to send a message of “unity” ahead of the start of their trial.

In a statement, Catalan regional president Quim Torra expressed his “solidarity” with the two prisoners who began a hunger strike.

“This dramatic and drastic measure is being taken because of what we find to be the complete violation of citizens’ rights, civil and political rights, and of respect for the legal process. It’s my personal view that penal law is being used for vengeance,” he added. </s> Two jailed Catalan separatist leaders awaiting trial over their role in Catalonia's failed bid to secede from Spain last year began a hunger strike Saturday, their lawyer said.

Jordi Sanchez, the former head of the influential grassroots ANC independence movement, and Jordi Turull, a former minister in the Catalan regional government, were both refusing food, lawyer Jordi Pina told a Barcelona news conference.

They wanted to highlight what they see as their unfair treatment by Spain's justice system, he said.

"I did not recommend this action," he added. "It is a decision of my clients and they have my full support."

The two men accused Spain's Constitutional Court of preventing their appeals from making it to the European Court of Human Rights, in a statement read by their lawyer.

"We will never give up on our right to a fair trial. We do not ask the Constitutional Court for any treatment of favor. But we do not passively accept any discrimination or unwanted delays," they said.

Pina said he did not know if the five other Catalan separatist leaders jailed in the Lledoners penitentiary some 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of Barcelona would join the hunger strike.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the hunger strike "was obviously not good news" and was not justified because the rights of the jailed Catalan separatist leaders were being respected.

"I think it is important to stress that they will have a fair trial because we live in a society based on the rule of law and the judiciary is independent," he told reporters at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

Spain's Supreme Court in October ordered a total of 18 former Catalan separatist leaders to stand trial over last year's declaration of independence.

Prosecutors are seeking jail terms of up to 25 years on charges of rebellion or misuse of public funds over the failed secession bid. They are asking for sentences of 17 years for Sanchez and 16 years for Turull.

The sensitive trial is expected to start in early 2019 and will focus on the attempt by Catalan leaders to break away from Spain in October 2017 by staging a referendum despite a court ban and subsequently proclaiming independence.

Nine separatists in all are in pre-trial detention. The seven at Lledoners prison have been held for between eight and 13 months without trial.

In a statement, Catalan regional president Quim Torra expressed his "solidarity" with the two hunger-striking prisoners.

"This dramatic and drastic measure is being taken because of what we find to be the complete violation of citizens' rights, civil and political rights, and of respect for the legal process. It's my personal view that criminal law is being used for vengeance," he added.

The announcement of the hunger strike comes a day after the first photo of the seven jailed Catalan leaders at the Lledoners prison was released by grassroots pro-independence organization Omnium Cultural.

The picture -- splashed across the cover of Catalan newspapers on Saturday -- shows the seven men smiling and wearing casual clothes in one of the courtyards of the prison.

Omnium Cultural said it released the picture to send a message of "unity" ahead of the start of their trial.

Sanchez told Reuters in an interview last week that he was convinced he would not get a fair trial in Spain, but believed he and other separatist leaders would be acquitted by the European Court of Human Rights.

Tensions with Madrid have cooled since last year but the Catalan government continues to advocate for a referendum on leaving Spain, something the Spanish government has said it will not accept.

Election results and polls show that the 7.5 million resident of the wealthy Catalonia region are roughly equally divided by the secession issue. </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 — 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> There is no formal deadline for the Supreme Court’s seven judges to render a verdict, but a ruling is expected before November. By then the defendants will have spent two years in prison, after being denied bail in 2017.

The case has also been closely followed in other parts of Spain, like the Basque region, which has its own separatist history. “It’s clear to us that this has been a show trial, to frighten anybody else who wants to challenge the state,” said Idoia Elorza, a Basque Nationalist Party official who traveled to Madrid this week with some colleagues to follow the trial’s closing days.

The trial’s most divisive issue has been whether the independence drive involved violence — and whether the leaders of the movement could be held personally accountable. On Wednesday, Jordi Turull, a former member of the Catalan government, said it was “an insult to Catalan society” to suggest that a few leaders had manipulated more than 2 million voters into taking part in the October 2017 referendum. “Catalans are not sheep,” he told the courtroom.

Other defendants also forecast that the independence movement would keep growing — with or without their help — and ultimately force the Spanish government to allow an independence referendum in Catalonia.

“The ballot box can never be a threat to democracy,” said Jordi Sànchez, a defendant who faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted. “In Catalonia, there will be ballot boxes and votes and we will have them thanks to an agreement with the Spanish government, like in Scotland or Quebec.”

If convicted, the defendants could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, or they could be pardoned by Mr. Sánchez. However, Spain’s prime minister is under intense pressure not to make further concessions to separatist politicians, particularly following his unsuccessful effort to reopen a political dialogue with them last year. The talks went nowhere, and instead the separatists helped vote down Mr. Sánchez’s budget in February, forcing him into a snap election.

The defendants’ closing statements, which referred to philosophical writings from Socrates to Hannah Arendt, also warned the judges directly that their ruling could significantly impact Spain’s political future. “You have the responsibility of not worsening a political situation,” Jordi Sànchez told the judges. “I would not like to be in your shoes now.” </s> The trial of Catalan separatists accused of trying to prise their region from Spain is scheduled to end on Wednesday after four months of intense hearings, which impacted national politics.

In proceedings broadcast live on television, 12 defendants have been in the dock every week, their role in organising an illegal referendum on secession and a short-lived declaration of independence in October 2017 under meticulous scrutiny.

For some, they are "political prisoners" repressed by the Spanish state -- and a protest by independence supporters is planned in Barcelona to mark the end of the trial.

For others, they broke the law and risked Spain's unity in the country's worst political crisis since its transition to democracy in the 1970s.

Nine are charged with rebellion, including Catalonia's former vice-president Oriol Junqueras who risks 25 years in jail, the heaviest sentence, and three face lesser charges of disobedience and misuse of public funds.

All 12 are expected to take the stand one last time on Wednesday.

Beyond the closely-watched proceedings at Spain's Supreme Court, the trial has shone the spotlight back onto key figures in Catalonia's independence drive, some of whom have been behind bars for over a year and a half.

With Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont, the main protagonist of the secession attempt, conspicuously absent after he fled Spain, that spotlight has shone brightest on his former deputy Junqueras.

"I am being prosecuted for my ideas and not for my actions," he told the court in February, prompting a later retort by prosecutors that the defendants were on trial for having broken the law, not for their opinions.

Not content with sitting through four months of hearings, the 50-year-old was elected lawmaker to the national parliament in an April general election along with four other fellow defendants. They were later suspended from parliament.

On May 26, Junqueras was also elected to the European Parliament and hopes to keep that post, although how that will happen remains to be seen.

Going forward, all eyes will now be on the sentence, which is not expected until later in the year.

"No matter what it is, the sentence will be interpreted by the independence movement as an element to hold on to, to try to mobilise its camp again," said politics professor Oriol Bartomeus.

He predicted that the sentence could push Catalonia's separatist-led government into calling snap regional elections or even "a reaction like disobedience."

By and large, however, Bartomeus said the trial did not appear to have swayed opinion in either camp in Catalonia, the wealthy region in northeastern Spain where around 47 percent are pro-independence.

"The trial will have been useful to strengthen an independence movement that had been left without much horizon or road ahead" months after the secession bid, he said.

Still, the trial -- and by extension the secession crisis in Catalonia -- continues to impact national politics.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was forced to call a snap election on April 28 after his 2019 budget failed to be voted through when Catalan separatist lawmakers refused to back it, partly in solidarity with those in the dock.

Perhaps the most controversial element in the trial has been the charge of rebellion levelled at nine of the defendants.

Under Spanish law, rebellion is a serious offence that implies a violent uprising.

Defence lawyers and independence supporters insist there was no violence, pointing to the peaceful nature of the movement.

Prosecutors argue that the defendants "fomented, favoured and sought the direct confrontation between the crowds of citizens and police," particularly during the banned independence referendum on October 1, 2017, which was marred by police violence.

On Tuesday, Junqueras's lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde said there may have been disobedience but never rebellion, accusing prosecutors of "bias and exaggeration."

The trial's chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza, however, has said the secession bid was a "coup d'etat" aimed at "wiping out the Spanish constitution."
The trial of the leaders involved in the Catalan declaration of independence ends and is remitted to decision. A verdict is not expected until after August.