Catalan separatist leaders get up to 15 years in jail

<p>Spain’s Supreme Court plans to convict and sentence Catalonia’s separatist leaders for up to 15 years in prison, over a 2017 bid for independence, according to a judicial source.</p> <p>The 12 leaders would be found guilty of charges of sedition and misuse of public funds. The verdict is expected to be signed by the judges and made public next week.</p> <p>The charges stem from the leaders’ role in an October 2017 referendum, which led to a short lived Declaration of Independence. Spanish courts ruled the referendum to be illegal.&nbsp;</p> <p>During the trial, the leaders stated that they did nothing wrong and were being prosecuted for political acts.&nbsp;</p> <p>“They have tried to behead us and now they want to culminate it but they will not achieve it...They will not make disappear the millions of separatists in this country,” Pere Aragones, a top official of Catalonia’s Republican Left.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>