Parliament speaker: Catalan leaders to be tried for their 'ideas'

Parliament president, Roger Torrent, read out an institutional declaration in the chamber on Thursday in support of the pro-independence leaders soon to be tried in the Supreme Court.

"The State will try 12 peaceful people for their ideas and not for their actions," said the statement. "At their side will be the 80% of the population of Catalonia that rejects repression and refuses to give up on democratically deciding their future."

Torrent also warned that while today political leaders are in the dock, "tomorrow" it could be other groups, such as "feminists, antifascists, ecologists or unions." The "unprecedented democratic crisis" threatens the rights and freedoms of all citizens, he added.

Alongside the chamber speaker while he read out the declaration were president Quim Torra, government ministers, and MPs from the pro-independence parties.

Only minutes before Torrent read out the declaration, the Supreme Court rejected the request by the defenses of the leaders to delay the start of the trial and confirmed it will go ahead on February 12.