Spanish Prosecutors Formally Accuse Catalan Separatists of Sedition

Criminal Complaints Filed Against Top Secession Advocates

Facing growing protests, growing police crackdowns, and a looming secession vote, Spanish prosecutors are trying to tamp down Catalan independence ambitions by filing criminal complaints formally accusing multiple Catalans of sedition.

Those named in complaints so far included two leaders in the Catalan National Assembly movement, and Omnium, two of the region’s top secessionist movements, both accused of fueling support for the referendum.

Prosecutors also broadly accused Catalan protesters in general of sedition, though with thousands of people in the streets, they conceded it was impossible to identify most of them. Officials cited this mounting unrest in the deployment of more national police to the region.

This is just the latest in a string of moves y prosecutors around the Catalonia vote, with prosecutors having previously summoned over 700 mayors and threatened to arrest them all for agreeing to allow the referendum to take place in their towns.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.