The former Catalan foreign minister, Raül Romeva, says that in the upcoming independence trial he will not acknowledge organising a referendum as a criminal offense. “I will not declare myself innocent; I will deny having committed a crime” Romeva told the Catalan News Agency from Lledoners prison. He has been in pre-trial jail for almost a year now.

“I will not deny any of the political acts taken to make the referendum possible; I will deny considering everything we did a crime” he said, adding: “What I will deny is the violence that is attributed to us.”

During the conversation with the Catalan News Agency in a visiting room in the penitentiary, Romeva stated that “there is no possibility for a legal defense” in the trial, due to start in the coming weeks. For him, it will be “an unfair trial, a farce.” “To think we will be able to defend ourselves with legal arguments is naïve; what we can do is to politically defend what we have done, but by no means defend ourselves” he said.