(CN) – Spain's judiciary, which critics say is too cozy with the country’s dominant political parties, will come under intense scrutiny in the coming months as its high court holds a politically explosive trial of Catalan independence leaders accused of rebellion and sedition.
The historic Madrid trial in the Supreme Court of Spain is expected to start on Feb. 5, or perhaps later, and last about three months, gathering testimony from hundreds of witnesses and experts. A ruling is expected in August, according to El País, a Spanish newspaper.
In all, 12 leaders involved in the Catalan parliament's failed, and illegal, drive in 2017 to declare Catalonia an independent nation will go on trial. They face charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds and sentences as long as 25 years.
“A guilty sentence would be remarkable, but it is possible, I am not ruling it out,” Emmy Eklundh, a lecturer in Spanish and international politics at King's College London, said in a telephone interview with Courthouse News.
“If they find them guilty, it will have large repercussions for the future relationship between Spain and Catalonia,” she said. Conversely, a not guilty verdict “could repair relations and turn a new leaf,” she added.
The decision by prosecutors to file charges of rebellion has caused the most controversy. Under Spanish law, a charge of rebellion implies the use of violence or the threat of it. But the Catalan independence movement has been described as largely nonviolent.
Andrew Dowling, a Spanish history lecturer at Cardiff University in Wales, said the last time anyone faced a rebellion charge in Spain was related to a failed 1981 military coup d'état when members of the Congress of Deputies, Spain's lower house, were held hostage for nearly a day and tanks surrounded the port city of Valencia.
“It will require some legal gymnastics to justify” the rebellion charges against the Catalan leaders, Dowling said in a telephone interview.
The unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia followed a referendum on Oct. 1, 2017, an act Spain's Constitutional Court ruled illegal.
The Spanish government sent in thousands of police officers to break up the referendum by storming polling stations and violently stopping people from casting ballots. In the aftermath, authorities arrested the independence leaders.
Now, more than a year later, their trial is giving rise to new questions about Spain's treatment of the Catalan leaders – nine have been held for months in pre-trial detention – and whether the nation's judiciary can be trusted to be impartial, fair and free of political influence.
Many people in Spain feel that the judicial system lacks legitimacy, in large part due to judicial scandals that have left people viewing the courts as stocked with judges too closely aligned with Spain's dominant parties – the conservative People's Party and, to a much lesser extent, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
In the case of Catalonia, this matters because both major parties are opposed to the region’s independence movement.
The legislative and executive branches of government – i.e., politicians – pick judges who sit on the Constitutional Court, the same court which ruled Catalonia's independence referendum illegal. The legislative branch also picks members of the General Council of the Judiciary, a body that appoints judges to the Supreme Court.
Dowling blamed the People's Party, long tainted by corruption scandals, for eroding the judiciary's independence during its recent tenure in power by appointing judges “who are loyal to the party.”
The history lecturer said the party tried to ensure favorable judges oversaw corruption cases involving its members.
“There is explicit evidence of tampering with the independence of the Spanish judiciary to try to find favorable judges,” he said.