The second chamber of Spain's Supreme Court has closed the investigation and opened the trial over last year's Catalan independence referendum.
Now begin the formalities which will lead to the imprisoned government ministers, Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart and the prosecuted senior Catalan Parliament deputies sitting in the dock.
The ruling, by judge Pablo Llarena, also confirms the definitive dropping of the accusations against Artur Mas, Neus Lloveras and Marta Pascal.
The next step is for the the prosecution and defence to present filings; this will be when the various prosecution parties confirm the charges and sentences they are calling for. The accusation filings could be public by around 2nd November, exactly a year since the National Audience court first sent the ministers to prison.
Pablo Llarena concludes the investigation in a 59-page ruling refusing all the steps the accused have asked for, which included the dropping of the case.
Some of the defence counsel had asked for the investigation phase to continue to give time for pending proceedings. But Llarena shelves the case regardless, saying that it would be "pernicious" and would delay the process: "Reopening the investigation to carry out several hundred steps would frustrate any expectation of a trial within a reasonable time. And, more importantly, this pernicious effect would have no justification".
Besides denying all the requested steps, he also dismisses their complaints of problems accessing the case's documents: "Those who now allege lack of defence [for problems consulting documents] are disregarding the fact that, during the investigation of the case, they've been notified of all the procedural acts which affected them and they've had access to the entirety of the documentation included in the case".
Llarena also declines to bring together into one case the proceedings underway at the National Audience and a Barcelona court investigating other aspects of last year's referendum.
The charges
Currently, awaiting the accusations' filings, the accused are variously facing charges of rebellion, misuse of public funds and disobedience, as set out in the indictments of 23rd March.
Rebellion and misuse of public funds: Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn, Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva, Antoni Comín, Dolors Bassa, Clara Ponsatí, Josep Rull.
Rebellion: Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart, Marta Rovira, Carme Forcadell.
Disobedience and misuse of public funds: Meritxell Borràs, Lluís Puig, Carles Mundó, Santiago Vila, Meritxell Serret.
Disobedience: Lluís Maria Corominas, Lluís Guinó, Anna Isabel Simó, Ramona Barrufet, Joan Josep Nuet, Mireia Boya, Anna Gabriel.
Three of those investigated (Artur Mas, Marta Pascal and Neus Lloveras) are not charged with anything.