Barcelona, Oct 17 (AP) Protesters were gathering for afresh round of demonstrations in Barcelona today to demand therelease of two leaders of Catalonia's pro-independencemovement who were jailed in a sedition probe.
A Madrid judge on Monday provisionally jailed JordiSanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the leaders of grassrootsorganisations Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural.
The judge ruled they were the orchestrators of massivedemonstrations September 20-21 in Barcelona that hindered apolice operation against preparations for the October 1independence referendum.
Protests have been called at midday today in Barcelona,the Catalan capital, and an evening demonstration is alsoplanned.
Some 500 students left classrooms in one of Barcelona'smain universities to join the demonstrations.
"We urge the release of our political prisoners and callon Catalan authorities to revoke the suspension of theindependence declaration and proclaim the Catalan republic,"said Aina Delgado Morell, a representative of Universitats perla Republica, a pro-independence student organisation.
Students would keep protests going to "stop therepression by the Spanish state," she added.
Thousands of supporters banged pots and pans and honkedcar horns in Barcelona following the independence leaders'jailing yesterday.
The judge's order came nearly 12 hours after a yesterdaymorning deadline passed without the president of Cataloniaclarifying whether he has declared independence from Spain.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont made an ambiguousdeclaration of independence last week, based on the results ofthe October 1 referendum.
Puigdemont now has until today to backtrack on any stepsthe region has taken toward secession. If he refuses, thegovernment has said it would invoke constitutional authorityto restrict or revoke the areas of self-governance Cataloniahas now. (AP)MRJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.