The Spanish National Court cleared on Wednesday Catalonia's former law enforcement chiefs of sedition and disobedience charges for their alleged role in the region's 2017 secession attempt, according to the court's ruling
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2020) The Spanish National Court cleared on Wednesday Catalonia's former law enforcement chiefs of sedition and disobedience charges for their alleged role in the region's 2017 secession attempt, according to the court's ruling.
On Tuesday, the Spanish media made the verdict known, citing sources. The acquittal was ruled in a 2-1 decision. Josep Lluis Trapero, the former chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra regional police; ex-director general of the police force Pere Soler; Cesar Puig, the former secretary general of the regional interior department; and Mossos d'Esquadra officer Teresa Laplana were found not guilty.
According to the ruling obtained by Sputnik, the court found no evidence that the defendants "tried to interfere with or complicate the execution of the decisions of the Constitutional Court, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia or the High Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Community," nor did they conspire with leaders of the "independence process."
The court concluded that there was no evidence that the defendants had become "an instrument of the separatist movement."
Initially, the Spanish prosecutors accused the four of conspiring with separatist politicians to hold the referendum and for their alleged reticence to help national police forces during protests by separatists. Prosecutors had asked for prison sentences of 10 years for Trapero, Soler and Puig, and four years for Laplana.
Trapero said during the court hearing that 7,000 Catalan law enforcement officers could not resist 2.3 million voters and admitted that some of the servicemen decided to disobey court decisions "for ideological reasons." However, he himself, did not plead guilty.
On October 1, 2017, Catalonia held a referendum in which over 90 percent of voters supported the region's independence from Spain. Madrid declared the referendum illegal and arrested a number of pro-independence politicians. The Supreme Court of Spain has sentenced nine pro-independence Catalan leaders to between nine and 13 years in prison on sedition charges, while three other officials were ordered to pay fines over disobedience.
