Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine former Catalan separatist leaders Monday to between nine and 13 years in prison for their attempt to declare independence from Spain in 2017.
The former regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, received the longest prison term of 13 years behind bars for sedition and misuse of public funds.
The court found three other defendants guilty only of disobedience and did not sentence them to prison.
The court, however, acquitted all defendants of the most severe charge, rebellion.
The former head of Catalonia's regional government called the Monday ruling an “atrocity.”
Carles Puigdemont wrote on Twitter: "100 years in prison in total. An atrocity. Now more than ever ... It is time to react like never before. For the future of our sons and daughters. For democracy. For Europe. For Catalonia."
Puigdemont was not a defendant in the landmark ruling over the banned referendum and short-lived independence declaration because he fled to Belgium, where he now lives in self-imposed exile.
