As it happened | Live blog of Thursday’s events in Catalonia
Catch up on all of the events in Spanish politics, as former regional cabinet members appeared in court

Scroll down for the latest updates
High Court judge Carmen Lamela has today sent the deputy premier and seven former members of the Catalan government into custody, while they await trial on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
Several members of the sacked Catalan Cabinet appeared in Spain’s High Court on Thursday morning, but regional premier Carles Puigdemont and four other members of his government – who are currently in Belgium – did not appear.
Santi Vila, the former head of the Catalan business department will have the option of paying a bond of €50,000 to stay out of prison. Vila, who resigned from his post before the Catalan parliament declared independence last Thursday, is the only one who testified during his appearance in court today, according to legal sources. He gave testimony lasting some 45 minutes is also the only one who took questions from someone other than his own lawyer, those sources said.
Meanwhile, the High Court public prosecutor has called for an international arrest warrant to be put out for Puigdemont and four ex-members of his cabinet, after they traveled to Brussels on Monday.
Meanwhile, the declarations in the Supreme Court of six officials from the Catalan speaker’s committee, including the speaker of the regional parliament, Carme Forcadell, have been postponed until November 9 after a request from lawyers.
The Supreme Court has granted a request made by prosecutors to assign police surveillance to the six officials.





Here's our full story on the judge's order today to send eight former members of the Catalan government to jail.


The former officials will not be sent to Soto del Real penitentiary, as was initially expected. The Interior Ministry has informed the Audiencia Nacional that the group of eight will be distributed among five different prisons, all of them in the Madrid region. These are Alcalá de Henares (Madrid I), Estremera (Madrid VII), Valdemoro (Madrid III) Navalcarnero (Madrid IV and Aranjuez (Madrid VI).


These are the former Catalan officials who will be held in pre-trial detention: left to right, starting with the top row, Oriol Junqueras, Meritxell Borràs, Raül Romeva, Dolors Bassa, Josep Rull, Carles Mundó, Jordi Turull, Joaquim Forn. The last one,Santi Vila, can avoid prison if he posts bail set at €50,000.

There are expressions of dismay and tearful faces on display among supporters of Catalan independence who have gathered outside the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid. The group began singing Els Segadors, the official anthem of Catalonia, and chanting “llibertat” (freedom). But mostly there is silence, Iñigo Domínguez reports.




To achieve independence for Catalonia, the accused, according to the judge, “made use of the population encourage acts of public insurrection, disobedience and collective resistance to the legitimate authority of the state, occupying to that effect highways, streets and public buildings and subjecting officers of the law to incessant harassment.”







