The Spanish Supreme Court is due to announce its verdict on October 14 in the trial of Catalan separatist leaders over their role in an independence referendum in 2017. To avert violence from the public if there's a guilty ruling, the Spanish police have deployed forces across Catalonia. Earlier, a dozen separatist leaders, including Aragonès’s predecessor, Oriol Junqueras, were on trial at Spain’s supreme court over their alleged roles in the failed push for regional independence in October 2017. Nine of them including Junqueras, the former speaker of the Catalan parliament Carme Forcadell, and two influential grassroots activists, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez who are accused of rebellion, which carries a prison sentence of up to 25 years. They also face other charges including sedition and misuse of public funds. Though they deny the charges, some of them could face a jail sentence. If convicted, separatists in Catalonia have called for mass protests. In 2017, there were clashes when Catalonia's pro-independence leaders went ahead with a referendum ruled illegal by Spain's constitutional court.

Read: Spain Police Officers Suffer Crash, Smugglers Come To Immediate Rescue

Details of the trial

As per reports, defence lawyers told the court their clients denied the charges of rebellion and sedition, but admitted to the lesser charge of disobedience, which could have seen them banned from public office - but avoid prison. The court has reportedly ruled out convicting the 12 of the most serious charge of rebellion yet the possibility of prison terms remains. The law applicable in this case is the lesser charge of sedition, which does not involve encouraging violence, can still result in up to 12 years in jail. Of the 12 activists, nine have already spent months in pre-trial detention and the remaining three were released on bail. At the same time, Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president, escaped trial after fleeing Spain in late October 2017 before he could be arrested, along with four others.

Read: Spain's Tenerife Suffers Massive Power Outage, A Million In The Dark

Accusations on the separatists

Prosecutors of Spain accuse that the unilateral declaration of independence was an attack on the Spanish state and accused some of those involved of a serious act of rebellion. They also added that the protesters have misused public funds in organizing the 2017 referendum. They said that the separatists carried out a perfectly planned strategy to break the constitutional order and obtain the independence of Catalonia illegally. The accused who were bailed told the media that the proceedings were political in nature. They rather blamed the Police to be the cause behind the violence in 2017.

Read: Death Toll Rises To 6 In Torrential Rains In Southeast Spain

Read: Spain Floods Claim Six Lives; 3,000 Evacuated, Many Stranded Rescued

(With inputs from Agencies)