Today Turull, Romeva, Rull
Both suspended JxCat MPs will take questions from the public prosecutor and the State solicitor, but the suspended ERC MP will only reply to the defence
Today the second week of the trial against Catalan independence supporters at the Supreme Court in Madrid begins. Today the minister of the presidency, Jordi Turull is to be called to the stand. Turull is an MP from the Catalan parliament for the pro-independence coalition JxCat who was imprisoned by Judge Llarena on March 23 2018. The Catalan foreign minister Raül Romeva (an MP from the left-wing Catalan republican party ERC) will also be questioned today.
According to the court’s planned timetable, two defendants are set to be questioned per day, but as the ERC MP is not planning to respond to questions from the prosecution, it is very likely that today the Catalan regional minister Josep Rull (another JxCat MP) will also be questioned.
The two JxCat MPs, who were suspended by Judge Llarena and chose not to be replaced, unlike the ERC MP, will respond to questions from the public prosecutor’s office and the state solicitor, also unlike the ERC MP, but none of them will be taking any questions from Vox.
Supreme court sources said yesterday that the questioning of defendants should have concluded by Thursday or by next week. Then 500 or so witnesses will be called to the stands (if the number of witnesses is not reduced in the build up to the elections) with politicians from the Catalan parliament, the chamber, and from the previous PP government called in the first block. The other two blocks of witnesses include those testifying in relation to allegations of violence on September 20 2017 and the Catalan referendum on October 1, and those testifying in relation to allegations of embezzlement.