Catalan Parliament bureau members to face trial in November

Five former members of the Catalan parliament bureau will face trial between November 19 and 22 in Catalonia’s high court (TSJC) for their role in the 2017 independence bid. The public prosecutor has requested disobedience charges for them, which do not carry prison sentences, but disqualification from public office.

However, the chamber speaker at that time, Carme Forcadell, is facing rebellion charges and has spent a year and a half in precautionary detention. The prosecutor has requested 17 years behind bars for her. Forcadell’s lawyers focused her defense on the difference between the chamber speaker and the other bureau members during the trial for the independence referendum in Spain’s Supreme Court.

The five bureau members were initially part of the case sent to the Supreme Court along with that of the politicians and activists that have been in precautionary detention for up to two years, but theirs was then sent to TSJC. Their trial will also involve the former far-left CUP MP Mireia Boya, who also faces disobedience charges.

Four of the former bureau members and MPs were part of the joint pro-independence Junts pel Sí ticket: Anna Simó, Lluís Corominas, Ramona Barrufet and Lluís Guinó. The other one is Joan Josep Nuet, who at the time was a member of the pro-referendum party Catalunya en Comú-Podem.