Catalan Parliament bureau members’ hearing at the Supreme Court underway

Some Catalan Parliament bureau members could end up in jail today. The hearing for six of them in the Spanish Supreme Court is underway. The president of the chamber, Carme Forcadell, was the first one to testify, and former vice presidents Lluís Corominas, Lluís Guinó and Anna Simó, as well as former secretaries Ramona Barrufet and Joan Josep Nuet will follow. They are no longer part of the bureau since the Spanish president, Mariano Rajoy, forced the dissolution of the Catalan Parliament during the last week of October. 

The six are accused of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds, the same charges for which the eight deposed Catalan ministers are currently being held in jail. Spain’s National Court decided to send them to prison without bail while awaiting their trial after their hearing last Thursday. The six members of the Parliament bureau face a different judicial institution today: the Supreme Court.

Some media reports say that the decision could be different and they could be given a conditional release. They were summoned to appear in court last Thursday but the judge decided to postpone the hearing for one week after the defense lawyers claimed that they had been summoned with less than 24 hours notice and had had no time to prepare the hearing. While the judge in the Supreme Court allowed the postponement, his counterpart in the National Court did not, and continued the hearings despite the short notice. All eight deposed ministers ended up jailed.