Catalan President Quim Torra, together with other independence leaders, was planning to seize the regional parliament and "activate" independence in the wake of the Spanish Supreme Court's rulings against key independence leaders last month, a member of a pro-independence movement said in his testimony on Thursday
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2019) Catalan President Quim Torra, together with other independence leaders, was planning to seize the regional parliament and "activate" independence in the wake of the Spanish Supreme Court's rulings against key independence leaders last month, a member of a pro-independence movement said in his testimony on Thursday.Twelve independence leaders were sentenced on October 14 for their involvement in the illegal referendum two years prior. Nine were found guilty of rebellion and received sentences ranging from 9 to 13 years in prison. The remaining three were sentenced for the lesser crime of disobedience. This triggered protests and riots across the autonomous community.
"I was told that Torra was willing to occupy parliament in a peaceful way, so that he would be allowed to come in, and then they were planning to barricade themselves there. Their idea was to stay inside, and then the president of the Catalan government was set to activate independence, which did not happen," Ferran Jolis from the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) told an investigating judge.
According to Jolis, Torra and other separatist leaders were going to keep the parliament locked for a week. Jolis was tasked with providing a "secure connection" between Torra and former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont during the planned takeover.
This was all supposed to happen on October 14, the day the Supreme Court announced its verdicts.
Jolis was among the nine pro-independence CDR activists who were detained on September 23 by the Spanish Civil Guard on suspicion of planning violent actions in Barcelona. Two of them were subsequently released. According to the investigative materials, the group was preparing "explosives and flammable substances" to use to target critical infrastructure and buildings, such as the Catalan parliament, as a distraction.
Currently, seven detainees are held in Soto del Real prison in Madrid. A judge has charged them with belonging to a terrorist group, possession of explosive materials and conspiracy to cause destruction.
