Dolors Bassa gives testimony in Catalan trial

Former Catalan minister Dolors Bassa gives her testimony in Spain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon over her role in the independence bid.

A member of pro-independence Esquerra (ERC) party, Bassa was the labor minister when the Catalan government held a referendum and declared independence in 2017.

She is the sixth member of the cabinet led by the then-president Carles Puigdemont to give evidence in the proceedings, after Oriol Junqueras and Joaquim Forn (last Thursday), Jordi Turull and Raül Romeva (on Tuesday), and Josep Rull (Wednesday morning).

Bassa has spent a year in pre-trial detention. She was released on bail after spending a month in prison from November to December 2017, only to be imprisoned again in March last year.

Spain’s public prosecutor requested a 16-year prison sentence for Bassa, who is accused of rebellion and misuse of public funds.