Former Spanish president Rajoy testifies in independence trial

The former Spanish president, Mariano Rajoy, started to testify in the Catalan trial on Wednesday afternoon.

He was leading the executive in Madrid during the 2017 constitutional crisis, and his cabinet enforced the direct rule in Catalonia some hours after the parliament declared independence on October 27, 2017.

His testimony comes after that of his former deputy, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, on Thursday morning.

Asking questions by the defenses, she blamed the former Catalan government of the Spanish police violence on referendum day.

“If people had not been called on to act as human barricades, some of the [violent] images on referendum day would not have taken place," she stated.