Remaining three 'Lledoners 9' pro-independence activists acquitted

The last three activists of the so-called 'Lledoners 9' pro-independence group were acquitted by a court in the central Catalan city of Manresa on Friday. 

Initially charged with disobedience as well as assaulting and injuring three officers, they sat in the dock with proposed 5-year prison sentences from the public prosecutor for attempting to prevent the transfer of the then-jailed referendum organizers from Lledoners prison, near Manresa, to Madrid for their trial in Spain's Supreme Court.

The Catalan government — ruled by pro-independence Esquerra Republicana and Junts per Catalunya — had also sought 15-month sentences for the three as a private prosecutor to the case.

On February 1, 2019, hundreds of people gathered outside Lledoners in an attempt to block off traffic on the highway before being dispersed by Mossos d'Esquadra police officers.

There were six other activists in the 'Lledoners 9' group, but after the trial, the public prosecutor decided to drop the public disorder charges against them.

"This is the end of a nightmare," one of the defense lawyers told the Catalan News Agency on Friday. While celebrating the acquittal, they argued the case should have been dismissed much sooner.