Thousands attend concert in Barcelona to support jailed Catalan leaders

Thousands attended on Saturday a concert in Barcelona demanding the freedom of eight pro-independence Catalan politicians and two activists charged with sedition.

The revenue made from the tickets sold will be kept in a so called solidarity fund to pay the possible bails of the politicians under arrest.

The eight former members of Catalonia's dismissed regional government and activists Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez appeared before the Supreme Court on Friday to request their release while they await trial in the wake of a disputed independence referendum. 

Seven of the eight former government officials and Jordi Sanchez, former head of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a pro-independence grassroots organisation, are candidates in the upcoming December 21 elections.

More than 10 bands took part in the event organised by the ANC including the heavy metal group "A sound of thunder" that performed a rock version of the Catalan anthem "Els segadors".

The venue was the Lluis Companys stadium known as the main olympic stage used during the Barcelona Olympic games in 1992.

Puigdemont to remain in Belgium

Catalonia's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont will remain in Belgium until after the December 21 elections in his native province, as he is fighting extradition to Spain, his lawyer said Saturday.

"No matter what, they will be (in Brussels) till at least December 21 and according to my calculations this could go on till mid-January,"  lawyer Jaume Alonso Cuevillas told Catalan radio Rac1, referring to Puigdemont and four of his former ministers.

"I am convinced that no matter what happens they will have recourse to an appeal," the lawyer said.

Why Puigdemont was sacked?

Puigdemont was sacked as Catalan president after holding a banned independence referendum and declaring, on October 27, that "Catalans have the capacity and the will to become an independent state. And on (December) 21, we must ratify this."

They all fled to Belgium in October, ignoring a summons to appear in court in Spain, claiming they would not get a fair trial. 

Madrid imposed direct rule on the formerly semi-autonomous region to stop the independence drive.

What are the charges over Puigdemont?

Puigdemont, who is awaiting possible extradition to Spain where he is wanted on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, is running in the election at the head of the Junts per Catalunya ("All for Catalonia" in Catalan) grouping.

It comprises people from his conservative, separatist PDeCAT party as well as members of civil society.

Hopes over united separatist front

Puigdemont had hoped to form a united separatist front for the new elections, as was the case in the region's last elections in 2015, when the pro-independence camp secured a majority of 72 seats in the 135-seat parliament, even though it won just 47.8 percent of the vote.

But ERC - the party of his former vice-president Oriol Junqueras, who stayed in Spain and was remanded in custody by a judge investigating him and other former regional ministers on the same charges as Puigdemont - rejected a joint ticket.