Catalan spearatist leader Puigdemont faces fresh probe
by AFP Staff Writers
Madrid (AFP) Nov 6, 2023

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont is the target of a new investigation into unrest that occurred after leaders of a failed independence push in 2017 received prison sentences, a Spanish court said Monday.

This announcement comes as Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, is negotiating with Puigdemont's party on an amnesty law for pro-independence activists facing trial, in exchange for his support which is essential if Sanchez is to be returned to power.

In a statement, the high court in Madrid announced that Puigdemont, the former president of the Catalan regional government, and ten other members of the separatist body were the subjects of "the investigation into the actions of the Democratic Tsunami platform", a secretive Catalan protest group.

The offences alleged against Puigdemont -- who, according to the magistrate in charge of the case, had a "leadership" role within the Tsunami group -- "could be classified, in a preliminary way, as terrorism", the court continued.

In October 2019, thousands of activists blockaded the Barcelona airport at the call of the mysterious "Democratic Tsunami" organisation to protest against the sentencing of pro-independence leaders to prison for their role in the 2017 secession attempt.

This organisation had also been responsible for road closures in Catalonia at a time of high tension marked by scenes of urban guerrilla warfare in Barcelona.

According to the national high court, the aim of the group was to "destabilise the State economically and politically and seriously undermine public order through massive social mobilisation".

Puigdemont is already being prosecuted in Spain for his role in the secession attempt, of which he was the main figure.

To avoid prosecution, he left for Belgium six years ago and has never returned to Spain since.

He has since been elected as a member of the European parliament.

The Spanish magistrate will therefore have to ask the EU parliament for the green light to question him.

In a message published on X, formerly Twitter, Puigdemont denounced a "permanent coup" by the judiciary, which the separatists accuse of being an arm of Madrid's "repression" of the pro-independence movement.

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