On Monday, Maza filed charges against 20 Catalan government and Parliament high-ranking officials — including president Carles Puigdemont — who had moved forward with independence plans, despite opposition from the Spanish government. In response, Madrid triggered Article 155 of the Constitution, moving to suspend self-rule in Catalonia and taking over the executive.

Catalan Parliament president Carme Forcadell and members of the chamber’s bureau were called to speak in the Supreme Court on November 2 and 3. Spain’s Attorney General, José Manuel Maza, accused them of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, among others.

The judicial case against Catalan independence went ahead on Tuesday. This, while Spanish courts started to summon pro-independence leaders accused of rebellion, and as the declaration of independence voted at the Catalan Parliament on October 27 was preemptively suspended by the Constitutional Court.

The Spanish Constitutional Court preemptively suspended the independence declaration after the Spanish government brought it to court, immediately after it was voted on last Friday. Forcadell and the bureau members were warned by the Court not to take any measures that could contravene the suspension.

Unlike Forcadell and the Parliament bureau members, Puigdemont and his ministers are to be tried in the National Court. This is because that they no longer have political immunity, after being dismissed by the Spanish government.

Speaking from Brussels in a press conference on Tuesday, Puigdemont criticized the “politicization of the Spanish justice, its lack of impartiality as well as its will to persecute ideas, not crimes.” After dismissing claims that he was seeking asylum in Belgium, Puigdemont divulged that his plan was to not return to Spain until he could face a “fair trial” and with a “reasonable outcome.”

Up to 30-year jail sentences

The National Court has yet to announce whether it will look into the rebellion accusations brought up against Puigdemont and his ministers. In a different case, pro-independence civil society leaders Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart were sent to prison on October 16. They remain in custody since then, facing sedition charges.

As per the Spanish criminal law, rebellion applies to those who “violently and publicly” try to “abrogate, suspend or modify the Constitution, either totally or partially,” or “declare the independence of part of the national territory.” The crime of rebellion carries jail sentences of up to 30 years.

“Not a rebellion crime”

According to Maza, actual violence is indeed not necessary to file rebellion charges because “rebels can never ensure that their uprising will be without victims and without bloodshed.” However, this is a contested standpoint. The former Spanish MP Diego López Garrido — responsible of drawing up the very article referring to the crime of rebellion in 1995 — told ACN that “it is necessary to demonstrate violence” to declare someone guilty of rebellion. “This is not a rebellion crime,” he concluded.