{"id":19802,"date":"2018-10-25T15:23:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T15:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19802"},"modified":"2018-10-25T15:23:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T15:23:13","slug":"spains-supreme-court-orders-trial-of-former-catalan-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19802","title":{"rendered":"Spain&#8217;s Supreme Court orders trial of former Catalan leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" readability=\"83.122840691\">\n<p class=\"speakable\">The Supreme Court in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/spain.html\">Spain<\/a> has ordered 18 former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/issues\/catalonia.html\">Catalan<\/a> leaders to stand trial over their role in the region&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/10\/catalonia-independence-171027145635868.html\">declaration of independence last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">In a statement issued on Thursday, the court said nine jailed former leaders, including Catalonia&#8217;s ex-Vice President Oriol Junqueras, should be tried for rebellion, which carries a prison sentence of up to 25 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The other nine, who have been released on bail or went into self-imposed exile, face accusations ranging from rebellion to misuse of public funds.<\/p>\n<p>Spain&#8217;s\u00a0<span>public prosecutor is expected to formalise charges against the 18 individuals within the next five days.\u00a0<\/span>A trial would likely start next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Catalonia&#8217;s former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/10\/catalan-president-carles-puigdemont-171001122719197.html\">Carles\u00a0Puigdemont<\/a>, who i<span>s in self-imposed exile in Belgium,\u00a0<\/span>is not part of the group expected to stand trial because Spain does not allow trials in absentia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Puigdemont played a key role in the\u00a0separatist drive which culminated with Catalonia&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/10\/catalan-parliament-begins-vote-independence-171027115908493.html\">declaration\u00a0of independence from Spain<\/a> on October 27 last year following a banned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/10\/wins-catalonia-independence-vote-marred-chaos-171002041612749.html\">secession referendum that was marred by violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Catalan government said 90 percent voted for independence, but turnout was less than 50 percent. The referendum marked the northeastern region&#8217;s second vote on independence in three years.<\/p>\n<p>Spain&#8217;s 1978\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.parliament.am\/library\/sahmanadrutyunner\/ispania.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">constitution<\/a>\u00a0decrees that the country is indivisible and grants the national government exclusive power to hold referendums.<\/p>\n<p>Polls show Catalans are evenly split on the question of independence but the overwhelming majority back a legally binding vote to settle the issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>\n            SOURCE:<br \/>\n            <span>Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court in\u00a0Spain has ordered 18 former Catalan leaders to stand trial over their role in the region&#8217;s declaration of independence last year. In a statement issued on Thursday, the court said nine jailed former leaders, including Catalonia&#8217;s ex-Vice President Oriol Junqueras, should be tried for rebellion, which carries a prison sentence of up&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":19803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}