Catalans re-arrested after burning images of the king

THE NATIONAL POLICE arrested two members of the CUP (Candidatura d’Unitat Popular), a pro-Catalan independence political party, on Tuesday December 13. Nora Miralles and Roger Santacana were accused several months ago of burning photos of the king and the Spanish Constitution, and they subsequently failed to appear in court on December 7.

Miralles and Santacana now join three other CUP members who were arrested on Monday December 12 for similar reasons. Ivan Altimira, Jordi Almiñana, and Aitor Blanc were apprehended by the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan police force) on Monday, whereas the police were initially unable to track down Miralles and Santacana. Eventually, officers located a bus that they were travelling in, which they pulled over at around 7am on Tuesday in Alcala de Henares in Madrid. 

All five of the politicians are accused of crimes against the Crown. On the most recent National Day of Cataluña (on September 11), members of the CUP staged a protest in which they allegedly burned photographs of King Felipe VI, and then a photocopy of the front page of Spanish Constitution.

The Mossos d’Esquadra sent a report to the National High Court, and Judge Fernando Andreu ordered the five politicians to appear in court on December 7, although they were given the option to do this by video conference from the courts in Barcelona. The five of them have openly refused to comply, as they claim that their objective is to disobey the judge because they do not consider burning symbols of an institution which has suppressed the Catalan people to be a crime.