Catalan Parliament Speaker Faces Court Over Independence Vote
The speaker from Catalonia’s now-deposed parliament faced a judge Thursday in Spain’s Supreme Court as it decides whether to charge five former leaders with sedition charges. Speaker Carme Forcadell and the others are suspected of engaging in a “concerted strategy to declare independence,” prior to the October parliament vote that unilaterally declared independence from Spain. Forcadell reportedly told the court the independence vote was “declarative and symbolic”an apparent step to minimize liability if she is charged with disobeying the Constitutional Court. Forcadell’s spokesman said as Catalan parliamentary speaker, she did not “have the freedom to stop a vote” in the …