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200,000 protesters hit the streets, demand release of jailed Catalan leaders

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The streets of Barcelona have been flooded with demonstrators numbering up to 200,000 who are demanding the release of two jailed Catalan leaders who have been in police custody without bail pending an investigation for alleged sedition.

Reports say demonstrators chanted “Freedom for Sanchez and Cuixart!” as they called for the release of Jordi Cuixart of Omnium Cultural and Jordi Sanchez of the National Catalan Assembly (ANC) who were both arrested after they were both jailed on the orders of a court in Madrid.

According to Anna Martinez, one of the members of the Committee for the Defense of the Referendum (CDR), a neighbourhood group created at the beginning of October to “defend the Catalan right to vote,” she never thought the Spanish government would take political prisoners.

Read also: France, Germany voice support as pressure mounts on Catalan leader to drop move for independence

“It’s shocking. The situation has become very serious,” she said.

The jailing of the two leaders of the largest separatist organizations in the Catalan region now moves Spain closer to imposing central rule over Catalonia in order to thwart its move for independence.

According to prosecutors the two separatist leaders identified as Jordi Sanchez and Omnium’s Jordi Cuixart played central roles in orchestrating pro-independence protests that last month trapped national police inside a Barcelona building and destroyed their vehicles.

 

 

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