Assemblea Nacional Catalana

DW - An event organizer had critical words for both Germany and Spain when it came to the imprisonment of Catalonia's ex-president. Meanwhile, politicians from Germany's The Left party paid Puigdemont an Easter prison visit.

The judge of the Spanish Supreme Court, Pablo Lerna, has ordered today to be detained the deputy prime minister of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, and three other indictees in connection with the attempt to separate the autonomous region.

This was announced by the court, the France press and Associated Press reported.

Spain's Constitutional Court has blocked Catalonia's declaration of independence, the Spanish daily El Mundo reported on Tuesday.

The Constitutional Court warned members of the permanent parliamentary office in Catalonia, including the sacked speaker of the Catalan parliament Carme Forcadell, to suspend any initiative that involves implementation of the declaration, the paper said.

The Spanish government is to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy and impose direct rule after the region’s president refused to abandon the push for independence that has pitched Spain into its worst political crisis for 40 years.

Thousands supporters of Catalonia's independence gathered in the squares of Barcelona and other Catalan cities to support the referendum scheduled for October 1, the Associated Press reported.

Thousands gathered on Sept. 21 at the gates of Catalonia's regional judicial body in Barcelona to demand the release of a dozen officials arrested in connection with a vote on independence that Spanish authorities are challenging as illegal.

Spain has warned Catalonia's separatist government against empowering a new Catalan tax agency as part of its plan for an independent state, saying it could lead to sanctions and criminal proceedings for companies.

Catalan government head Artur Mas has voiced his intention to call early elections as a step toward gaining independence from Spain.

Mas told a 3000-strong multitude at a conference in Barcelona he believed this was "the only instrument" allowing Catalans to decide on their future as a nation, Spanish daily El País quotes him as saying.