Nine pro-independence activists were arrested on Monday morning by Spain’s paramilitary police, the Guardia Civil. They were accused of supposedly planning violent actions, although there are no proofs so far. Several raids took place in Sabadell, Cerdanyola and Molet del Vallès, three cities in Barcelona’s metropolitan area.

The operation has been called for by Spain’s National Court in Madrid and arrives shortly before the verdict of the trial against the Catalan political prisoners is announced. Sources of the Spanish court said that the activists are members of the CDR pro-independence groups and have been investigated for over a year for “terrorism”. The arrested individuals will testify before the National Court in Spain’s capital in the coming days.

Last year two other activists were accused of terrorism – one of them, Adrià Carrasco, went into exile, and the other one, Tamara Carrasco, was held in her town before the charges were dropped for both.

Indiscrimate raids

The CDR organization reacted to the arrests on Twitter, saying: “No matter how many indiscriminate raids and arbitrary detentions there are, they won’t stop a determined and combative people.” The CDR, or Committees for the Defence of the Republic, are a network of pro-independence assemblies set up in 2017 that defend the bid split from Spain by promoting demonstrations and protests.

The arrests come as the verdict in the trial of independence leaders in the Supreme Court is due out soon. On Monday, the acting Spanish interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, did not rule out deploying extra police in Catalonia “to guarantee security.”

Some 500 police officers joined the operation, mostly in the Vallès area – Sabadell, Mollet del Vallès, Cerdanyola del Vallès, as well as Sant Vicenç de Torelló are the towns where the agents displayed the operation.