GETTY Catalan independence supporters take to the streets

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An unprecedented combination of legal action, police deployments and economic sanctions are disrupting the effort to hold the vote which has been declared illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court. Police have been sent to hunt down ballot papers and materials related to the referendum, while media organisations have been warned not to broadcast official Catalan campaign advertisements related to the vote. More than a hundred websites related to the referendum have already been shut down by the authorities.

GETTY The Catalan crisis looks set to rumble on whatever happens on Sunday

Madrid has also essentially taken over the regional executive’s finances to ensure that “not a single euro” is spent on the ballot. Banks have been ordered not to allow money transfers from Catalan government accounts without Madrid’s consent. Catalonia’s High Court is investigating the entire Catalan Cabinet led by regional President Carles Puigdemont — as well as five regional lawmakers — on charges of disobedience, prevarication, and misuse of public funds. Another judge in Barcelona is investigating 20 people on the same charges in a case related to the vote that has been placed under judicial secrecy.

Last week, the same judge ordered 41 facilities allegedly connected to the referendum — including six government offices — to be raided in Catalonia. In the operation, authorities temporarily detained more than a dozen Catalan officials, prompting thousands of people to the streets to protest. Computers and data belonging to organisers of the referendum are understood to have been confiscated. The prosecutor’s office at Spain’s High Court submitted a penal complaint on charges of sedition — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — for the protests that day. It is unclear if any Catalan officials will end up in prison but an investigative judge warned the criminal justice system was difficult mechanism to stop once it had started to roll.

Spain crisis: Protest outside the Catalan High Court Fri, September 22, 2017 Pro-Independence Associations called for a meeting in front of the Catalan High Court building demanding release of the 14 officials arrested yesterday during a Spanish Police operation in an attempt to stop the region's independence referendum, due to take place on October 1, which has been deemed illegal by the Spanish government in Madrid Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 8 People demonstrate in front of the Catalan High Court building