MADRID: The former head of Spain's Catalonia region was barred from public office for two years on Monday for staging an informal referendum on independence, after a trial that has stoked tensions between separatist leaders and the central government.

Artur Mas - who was regional governor in 2014 when pro-independence campaigners held a symbolic referendum in breach of a legal order - was found guilty of contempt of court, Catalonia's Superior Court of Justice said in a ruling.

The case comes as separatist political parties in Catalonia, a wealthy region with its own language and distinct culture, are pushing to hold another vote on breaking away from Spain in September.

Spain's centre-right Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly ruled out such a scenario, however, saying any regional vote on secession would be illegal. Spain's Constitutional Court has blocked such moves in the past. </s> MADRID — Spain’s Supreme Court is stripping six prominent Catalan politicians of public office for trying to make the northeastern region of the country independent.

Judge Pablo Llarena also ruled Tuesday that the six secessionists be sent to trial on charges of rebellion, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

Those charged include former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is fighting extradition from Germany, and former regional Vice-President Oriol Junqueras.

Llarena left it up to the Catalan regional parliament, where the rebellion defendants now are lawmakers, whether to replace them.

Llarena was tasked with investigating what took place in Catalonia in October, when Puigdemont’s government disobeyed a court ban on holding a secession vote and the regional parliament unilaterally declared independence.

The events triggered Spain’s most severe political crisis in decades.
The leading judge presiding over the investigation of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum and the director of the Operation Anubis Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer dies suddenly at the age of 71.