The pro-independence CATALAN protesters clash with police in Barcelona for second consecutive day following the arrest of nine prominent pro-independence leaders by Spain’s supreme court over the accusations of their roles in the region’s failed bid.
Catalonians held protest for the second consecutive day at the gates of the Spanish government’s delegations in all of four provincial capitals. Riot police in Barcelona charged at protesters after some of them thrown cans, bottles and stones at the officers and kicked the temporary fences put in place to protect the building.
Police was firing rubber bullets and throwing tear gass bombs at the protesters. A man lost his eye in the result of clashes between Catalonian protesters and the police. The protesters were singing the Catalan anthem and shouting, “The streets will always be ours,” ”Independence,”. They were also chanting slogans, calling Spanish police “occupying forces” and urging them to leave Catalonia. Violent protests were also being held in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, as well as smaller towns across Catalonia.
The protester who lost his eye in clashes outside Barcelona’s airport was among the injured overnight Monday into Tuesday, as tensions erupted over the convictions of Catalan separatist leaders.
He was among 170 who were injured in the clashes, 40 of them police officers, between angry protesters and riot police at Barcelona’s international airport and elsewhere across the north-eastern Spanish region.
Spanish authorities announced an investigation into the group organising the protests, as new disruptions to Catalonia’s transportation network took shape on Tuesday. In a landmark ruling Monday, Spain’s Supreme Court acquitted the Catalan politicians and activists from the more serious crime of rebellion for pushing ahead with a banned referendum on Oct. 1, 2017, and declaring independence based on its results.
But judges found nine of them guilty of sedition and handed down prison terms of nine to 13 years. Four of them were additionally convicted of misuse of public funds and three were fined for disobedience.