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Catalan Separatists to Back Sanchez Despite Prospect of Harsh Jail Terms

Martin Arostegui

   MADRID - Legislators representing the Catalan independence movement
   appear ready to help clear the way for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to
   form a new government despite the looming prospect of harsh prison
   sentences facing a dozen of the movement's leaders.

   "People know that there will be a guilty verdict and severe
   punishments," said Raimond Blasi, a Barcelona city councilman for the
   pro- independence JuntxCat party. "But some parties are seeking to gain
   political spaces by negotiating with the government."

   The panel of Spanish judges that presided over the trial's 52 sessions
   are not scheduled to deliver their verdict until September. But hopes
   for leniency seemed dashed hours after it concluded Thursday, when
   Spain's supreme court denied Catalan regional Vice President Oriol
   Junqueras permission to leave prison to take his seat in the recently
   elected European parliament.

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