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Riot police in Barcelona, who have been deployed in response to the protests. Bernat Armangue/AP/Press Association Images
Spain

Over 50 people arrested as protests continue over jailing of Catalan leaders

The protests began after the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan leaders earlier this week.

POLICE IN SPAIN said today that they arrested 51 people across Catalonia overnight after violent protests over the jailing of nine separatist leaders for their role in a failed 2017 independence bid.

Pro-independence groups staged sit-ins outside Spanish government offices in a number of Catalan cities late last night, with around 40,000 people taking part in Barcelona and 9,000 in Girona.

The protests descended into clashes with police in many cities.

In Barcelona, police charged hundreds of masked demonstrators who threw projectiles at officers and set bins and cardboard boxes on fire.

When one man tried to put out the flames of a burning rubbish container with a fire extinguisher, masked protesters pushed him away, images broadcast on Spanish television showed.

spain-catalonia A barricade is set on fire in Barcelona. Bernat Armangue / AP/Press Association Images Bernat Armangue / AP/Press Association Images / AP/Press Association Images

National and regional police arrested 29 people in the province of Barcelona, 14 in Tarragona province and eight in Lleida, according to Spain’s interior ministry.

The ministry said 72 police officers were injured in the clashes, including several who suffered broken bones.

A high-speed train between Barcelona and Figueres, a town not far from the French border, was blocked due to sabotage, the central government said in a statement.

Several streets in Barcelona, the Catalan capital, were cut off because crews were cleaning up debris from 157 fires set overnight, it added.

The protests began after the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan leaders to between nine and 13 years in prison earlier this week for their role in an independence movement.  

© – AFP 2019

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