"Self-determination is a right, not a crime" …

Thousands of protesters took to the streets this afternoon in different parts of Catalonia to protest the beginning of the trial of the main leaders of the separatist movement who called the referendum of 1 October 2017, which led to the declaration of Unilateral independence of the region. October 27 of the same year.

At the end of the first day of the trial, Amnium Cultural, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Junts per Catalunya, Esquerra, the PDECat and the CUP denounced the fact that the trial that supports the Supreme Court is "a cause "and that" self-determination is a right, not a crime. "

The main events took place in Girona, Sabadell, Tarragona and Lleida, but the greatest concentration took place in Barcelona, ​​where a common document was read, warning that there will be "a before and after" and that the trial of 1-0 "will mark the future" of Catalonia.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday opened the historic trial against the 12 pro-independence leaders pursued, implicated in the unsuccessful attempt at secession in October 2017, as the Catalan issue disrupts Spanish politics and threatens to precipitate early elections.

"The case is against political dissent," said Andreu Van den Eynde, lawyer of former Catalan vice president, Oriol Junqueras, to whom the prosecution is demanding 25 years in prison.

The process, broadcast live on television, could last about three months and hundreds of witnesses, including former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, will appear. The sentence will not be known until July.

The missing absentee is the main protagonist of the secession attempt, the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, has fled to Belgium. "We can unmask the artificial construction of a political cause", which "will also be a stress test for the Spanish democracy," said the former Catalan leader of Berlin.

In addition to Junqueras, the prosecutor demands between 7 and 17 years in prison for the other eleven accused. Among them are the former president of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, several former regional ministers and officials at the time of the events of the ANC and badociations of cultural independence of France. Amnium, respectively, Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart.

A total of nine are accused of rebellion and are in custody.

"What we are going to do is use this judgment as an international denunciation tool, which strengthens our cause for self-determination and the independence of Catalonia," promised Elisenda Paluzie, president of l & # 39; ANC.

The key issue in the trial will be violence, the concept that according to the Spanish Penal Code, the accusation of rebellion is upheld. The prosecution believes that there had been, the accused encouraged to vote in the referendum "aware of the illegality of the act and that it could produce violent explosions".

The separatists, who demand the acquittal of the accused, point out that no weapons have been used and claim that the most violent were the police officers who, that day, used batons, rubber bullets and pressure to prevent consultation.

There is "a sense of absurdity, because we are convinced that the crimes so serious that they impute us have not been committed." The violence needed to justify these crimes does not exist, "said one of the accused to AFP, the former Catalan journalist Judge Carles Mundó.

Jurists are divided on the verge of whether there has been violence or not, to the point that state attorneys, who also carry the charge, have laid the charge of sedition, resulting in a term of imprisonment of up to 12 years. case of rebellion.