The request was filed after the secessionist leaders appear on Thursday before National Court (AN) Judge Carmen Lamela

The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office today requested prison without bail for eight former council people of the Catalonian government who were accused of rebelliousness and sedition for their alleged responsibility for the unilateral declaration of independence in that autonomous region.

The request was filed after the secessionist leaders appear on Thursday before National Court (AN) Judge Carmen Lamela.

The AN judge will rule in the next few hours whether she send them to prison for charges related to the independence process in that region, which resulted in the proclamation of a Catalonian Republic by the regional parliament on October 27.

On that same day and with support from the Senate, the head of the Spanish Government, Mariano Rajoy, removed Catalonian Carles Puigdemont and his entire cabinet from office, dissolved the autonomic parliament and called early election on December 21.

Nine of the council people (ministers) removed from office last Friday by the Rajoy government testified today in court, but Puigdemont and four former collaborators, who are in Brussels, ignored the subpoena.