Catalan parliament speaker and four lawmakers freed on bail by Spanish judge

A Spanish judge on Thursday freed on bail the Catalan parliament’s speaker and four lawmakers while authorities continue to investigate their leading roles in Catalonia’s banned independence drive.

The Supreme Court had summoned them to answer charges of rebellion after they enabled an October 27 declaration of independence that prompted the Spanish government to dissolve the Catalan parliament and sack the regional administration.

Speaker Carme Forcadell will be held in custody until she pays the 150,000-euro bail, according to the written ruling. The four lawmakers must pay bail of 25,000 euros, while a fifth was released without bail.

Judge Pablo Llarena wrote in Thursday’s ruling: “All the accused … have expressed that either they renounce future political activity or, those that remain active, will do it renouncing any actions outside the constitutional framework.”

The judge’s decision to reject prosecutors’ requests to jail them gives the separatists, whose leader Carles Puigdemont went into self-imposed exile in Belgium last week, some breathing space as courts have been steadily tightening the legal noose.