Catalan police leader Trapero returned in court over sedition accusation

“A hero” and “martyr” of Catalonia’s independence drive or a “traitor” to Spain? Catalonia’s police leader, due to appear in front of a Madrid court Monday, has turn out to be the symbol of a deeply divided united states of america.
For the second one time in 10 days, Josep Lluis Trapero has travelled to Madrid’s country wide court docket, which amongst different things deals with countrywide protection instances, to answer accusations of “sedition”, a crime that incorporates a prison term of up to fifteen years.

The head of the Mossos d’Esquadra local pressure is accused of failing to contain protests that accompanied arrests and searches in Catalonia closing month by country wide police as part of a crackdown at the banned independence referendum.

Trapero is to seem in court just as Catalonia pro-independence chief Carles Puigdemont responded to a request to make clear his ambiguous stance on secession to the relevant government.

Trapero, who has 27 years’ police experience, became largely unknown to Catalans whilst he have become head of the Mossos in April.

His most effective previous brush with fame turned into a video that appeared on social media in 2016 of him sporting a floral print shirt and a straw hat, making a song and playing guitar with Puigdemont.

but he fast have become a household name in August for his role in leading the research into the jihadist mobile that accomplished car attacks in Barcelona and the nearby beach resort of Cambrils, killing sixteen people.

After the attacks, Trapero regarded on tv round the arena as he explained the repute of the probe all through every day press meetings. inside 4 days, the Mossos had tracked down and shot lifeless the primary suspect.

Trapero, the son of a taxi driving force, who grew up on the outskirts of Barcelona, became a neighborhood hero and Catalans protected Mossos motors with plant life.
however he is a divisive determine in Catalonia, a location deeply cut up over independence.

He is accused of disobeying court docket orders to prevent the Catalan local government from going in advance with a banned independence referendum.

Trapero, who has a law diploma, refused to place himself beneath the coordination of a excessive-ranking central government reliable earlier than the plebiscite.

He avoided a assembly with prosecutors and an inner Catalan authorities memo discovered that he ordered his officials no longer to use pressure to close down polling stations.

The Mossos largely stood lower back as Spain’s countrywide police and its Guardia Civil force led a every now and then violent crackdown, baton-charging and firing rubber bullets at would-be voters and smashing into polling stations to capture ballot boxes. Video photographs of the crackdown sparked worldwide condemnation.