Catalan president included in police investigation over referendum

A Spanish police report includes the current Catalan president, Quim Torra, in the investigation over the 2017 independence referendum, according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

Torra allegedly was showing in a video of an event in 2016 admitting the "hidden creation" of some state structures for a potential independent Catalonia by the Catalan government.

Yet at that time Torra was part of the grassroots independence movement and was neither an MP in Parliament nor government official.

The clip, whose existence has been confirmed by the Catalan News Agency, allegedly shows Torra calling on citizens to create a "Gandhian scenario" with massive and permanent demonstrations.

The video was found in the residence of the judge Santiago Vidal, also investigated for the referendum organization by Barcelona's local court number 13.

A senator for pro-independence PDeCAT party, Josep Lluís Cleries, outside Spain's Supreme Court ahead of day 7 of the trial, said the report "is evidence that the Spanish democracy is in freefall."

He also noted that Torra had no "executive responsibility" in 2016. "There is a persecution of ideas," added Cleries.