Ex-Catalan police chief to go on trial for rebellion in January

The chief of Catalonia's police force at the time of the Spanish region's failed independence bid will go on trial for rebellion on January 20 next year, a court said Tuesday.

Spanish national police accuse Catalonia's regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, of not doing enough to enforce a ban against an independence referendum on October 1, 2017 while it was under Josep Lluis Trapero's watch.

Trapero was charged at the time with rebellion along with another Mossos head and a senior official of Catalonia's regional interior ministry. The three risk prison sentences of up to 11 years if found guilty.

Another Catalan regional police force head was accused of the lesser crime of sedition. She faces a possible jail sentence of four years.

Trapero's trial will be held at the High Court in San Fernando de Henares, near Madrid, and it is expected to run until March 19, the court said.

The main trial over Catalonia's failed attempt to break away from Spain wrapped up in June.

Twelve Catalan separatist leaders, including former vice president Oriol Junqueras, face jail sentences of up to 25 years over their role in the region's separatist push.

Trapero appeared at their trial as a witness. He defended his performance as chief of the Mossos when he took the stand, saying his officers were ready to arrest the region's then-president Carles Puigdemont during the independence bid, if they had been asked to do so by judicial authorities.

Puigdemont fled to Belgium shortly after Catalonia's parliament on October 27, 2017 declared independence in vain following the banned referendum.