Judge grants order for speaker of Catalonia parliament to be jailed
A Spanish judge has agreed to jail Catalonia's top parliamentarian in the rebellion probe stemming from the regional parliament's independence vote, setting her bail at 150,000 euro and ordering her passport confiscated.
Prosecutors had asked Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena to jail Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell and three other politicians without bail today.
Ms Forcadell is the speaker of the regional parliament where, disregarding warnings from Spain's Constitutional Court, separatist politicians passed a declaration to proclaim a new Catalan republic on October 27.
Prosecutors are pursuing a criminal case against the speaker and five members of the parliament's governing body.
The judge set a 25,000-euro bail to be paid in one week for four politicians if they want to avoid jail, and released from custody a sixth who had made the October 27 vote possible but opposed the independence declaration.
During earlier questioning, Ms Forcadell sought to avoid custody by saying that the independence declaration was "symbolic", according to lawyers familiar with the proceedings.
