2017/11/10

Catalan parliament speaker freed from jail after posting €150,000 bail


The speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell, was released today from prison after her defense posted the €150,000 bail set on Thursday by the Supreme Court. Forcadell spent the night in the Alcalá-Meco jail in Madrid before being freed around midday on Friday.

Forcadell testified in the Supreme Court on Thursday to answer charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in connection with the independence drive in the northeastern Spanish region.

Forcadell said the declaration of independence passed by the regional parliament on October 27 was of a polític nature only. She also pledged to comply fully with the emergency powers imposed in the region by Madrid under Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution in response to the unconstitutional declaration.

Forcadell, Lluís Maria Corominas, Anna Simó, Lluis Guinó, Ramona Barrufet and Joan Josep Nuet i Pujals are being investigated by the Supreme Court rather than the High Court because they have the status of partial immunity before the country’s lower tribunals.

Responding to questions from prosecutors and from her lawyer, Forcadell argued she had always allowed parliamentary debate to go ahead without prejudicing results or controlling content. She told the judge that avoiding such parliamentary debate would have seen her breaking laws applying to the speaker’s committee and violating the principles of a democratic state.

The speaker also rejected the idea that the Catalan independence push had included violence and said she had always maintained that all protests should be peaceful.

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