Catalan Parliament president leaves prison after spending the night there

The Catalan Parliament president, Carme Forcadell, was released on Friday at around 2pm local time. She had spent the night in Alcalá-Meco prison after the judge granted bail to her on Thursday evening but did not allow her to pay it right away after making the ruling public. Forcadell paid the €150,000 bail set for her on Friday morning. She managed to gather such an amount thanks to the Catalan National Assembly (ANC). This is the main pro-independence organization in Catalonia, and it has been raising money for a solidarity fund over the past few weeks.

Now all the chamber bureau members are free after their hearings at the Supreme Court on Thursday. Four of them were also granted bail, but were given a week to pay it. Lluís Corominas, Lluís Guinó, Anna Simó and Ramona Barrufet will have a week to pay €25,000 each, so they will only be imprisoned if they fail to meet the deadline next Thursday. There was uncertainty over the cautionary measures against Joan Josep Nuet, the only bureau member against independence but also accused because he voted in favor of allowing the vote on the declaration of independence to take place. In the end, the judge let him go free without any measures in place. All of them are accused of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.

Yet ten pro-independence officials are still in prison on the same charges. Eight deposed ministers testified last week at Spain’s National Court and the judge decided to send them to jail without bail while awaiting trial. They have been held in custody for over a week. Two civil pro-independence leaders have also been in prison since October 16 for leading a protest in which Spanish police raids on Catalan government buildings were allegedly obstructed on September 20.