Court hearing of CUP official underway

The former pro-independence CUP party MP, Mireia Boya, started to testify in Spain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday at 11am CET. Boya arrived at the court in Madrid at around 10am, with around one hundred people supporting her outside the building, including politicians in favor of Catalonia’s self-determination. Boya is under investigation for allegedly being part of a “strategic committee” to achieve independence in 2017.

In a press conference on Monday, she said that she is facing the hearing “with head held high” and made it clear that she would not renounce “a single comma” of the party’s manifesto. “We carried out a referendum and we won it,” said Boya, who insisted that the allegations of rebellion are based on police reports that are “partial and self-interested, which create a narrative that has nothing to do with reality because there was no violence.”

Boya is just the first of a list of Catalan officials that are due to testify in court in the coming weeks. In all, 28 pro-independence leaders are under investigation for their role in the events leading to Catalonia’s declaration of independence and the holding of the October 1 referendum. Among them is Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and his ministers, as well as other MPs in Parliament and members of pro-independence parties.

More leaders summoned for next week

Six politicians under investigation for their role in events related to Catalonia’s push for independence are summoned to court next week. ERC party MP, Marta Rovira, and PDeCAT party leader, Marta Pascal, will testify on February 19. The next day, the former Catalan president Artur Mas and the former leader of an association of towns for independence will also appear. Meanwhile, the former CUP MP, Anna Gabriel, will testify in court on February 21.

In December, the judge overseeing the Supreme Court investigation broadened the case against pro-independence leaders, considering the referendum and Catalonia’s bid for independence to have been “launched under the direction and coordination of a group of people.” According to the judge, the six officials due to testify next week were part of a so-called “strategic committee” aimed at achieving Catalonia’s independence.