Spain's police and judiciary have dropped a bombshell, days before the second anniversary of the Catalan independence referendum and the announcement of the sentences against pro-independence leaders. Today, the Civil Guard has arrested nine people, accused of terrorism, possessing explosives and rebellion by the National Audience.
Prosecutors accuse them of "an advanced degree of preparation of terrorist projects with secessionist aims". The Civil Guard is already taking five of the nine to Madrid where they are all set to appear in the National Audience tomorrow.
According to the public prosecution service, "abundant computing material and documentation" has been seized during the operation. What's more, "material and substances, considered precursors for the preparation of explosives, susceptible to being used in the fabrication of explosive devices and to be used against objectives selected by a group of CDR activists have been located." The CDR are the decentralised Committees for Defence of the [Catalan] Republic.
They say they are "certain" that "actions were going to be perpetrated, taking advantage of the period included between the anniversary of the illegal self-determination referendum on 1st October 2017 and the announcement of the sentence in the trial". For that reason, the decision was taken to "proceed to the arrest of those implicated in order to abort the project which could have occasioned irreparable damage due to the advanced state of preparations".
The operation and some of the searches are ongoing. All related documents have been sealed by the court; there is a chance there are further arrests and investigations to come.