18 October 2017 10:28 am
DPA, 17th OCTOBER, 2017- A judge on the Spanish National High Court ruled Monday that two leading figures in Catalonia’s independence movement be sent to pretrial detention without bail on charges of sedition and agitating for the region’s secession. Jordi Sanchez, head of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) party, and Jordi Cuixat, president of civil society organization Omnium Cultural, were deemed to have organized and mobilized large-scale demonstrations in defiance of Spanish authorities in the lead-up to Catalonia’s disputed referendum on independence held on October 1, as well as in the weeks since.
Judge Carmen Lamela’s judgement found that the men had utilized websites and social media to organize demonstrations as part of a “complex strategy” to push toward Catalan independence.
Sanchez and Cuixart’s “ability to convene” was deemed instrumental in the continued, organized civil disobedience in Catalonia that has been central in pushing Spain into its current political crisis.