Spain’s solicitor general will request sedition and misuse of funds sentences for leaders

The Spanish solicitor general will request sentences of sedition and misuse of funds for the pro-independence leaders in jail to the Spanish Supreme Court. 

The authority representing the Spanish government in the trial against the October 1 referendum and declaration of independence will rule out rebellion in its official request presumably taking place on Friday.

While rebellion charges might carry up to 30 years behind bars, sedition and misuse of funds might also carry prison. The former carries from 10 to 15 years behind bars, while the latter from 4 to 8.

That means that, if the judge accepts after the trial the solicitor general’s proposal, the nine incarcerated officials will face at least 14 years in jail.

On Friday it is expected that the general prosecutor also makes public its proposed sentences, and on Monday it will be the time for the private prosecutor, far-right Vox party. 

The Spanish government needs the pro-independence parties to pass the 2019 budget, and Esquerra and PDeCAT demanded a “gesture” from Madrid towards the absolution of all the officials involved and their freedom before the trial takes place.

Yet in the past few weeks, the country’s top leaders said that lowering the charges but keeping prison would not be enough.