14 Catalans arrested for protesting “state repression” outside Spanish court

The police under Spanish command has arrested 14 Catalan people protesting the imprisonment of pro-independence leaders and what they consider “state repression”. Early on Friday morning, the demonstrators of the grassroots movement Committee for the Defence of the Catalan Republic (CDR) chained themselves to the main door of Spain’s Supreme Court in Catalonia, thus blocking the way into the building. The protesters refused to unblock the entrance and the street outside the court building when asked by police, saying that they would not leave until those arrested are released. Finally, police officers removed the demonstrators, unblocked the entrance of the building, and arrested 14 protesters. During the police action, medical services had to attend to one person. Yet, the reasons were not related to the protest 

The demonstration began at 8am on Friday, and has continued throughout the morning. Some hundred people are protesting in the street where Spain’s Supreme Court is located, on Lluís Companys avenue. They are demanding that “political prisoners” be freed, while also chanting slogans in support of the former Catalan police chief, Josep Lluís Trapero, who is to appear in a Madrid court on Friday for his role in the push for independence. Other people is in the police office where activists have been confined.