BARCELONA (AFP) -- Thousands of angry protesters took to the streets of Barcelona on Monday after Spain's Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders to between nine and 13 years in jail for sedition over the failed 2017 independence bid.
As the news broke, demonstrators turned out en masse, blocking streets in Barcelona and elsewhere as police braced for what activists said would be a mass response of civil disobedience.
The long-awaited ruling capped weeks of rising tension, and puts the Catalan question at the heart of the political debate less than a month before Spain heads into its fourth general election in as many years.
The 12 defendants were put on trial in February for their role in the banned October 1, 2017 referendum and the short-lived independence declaration that followed it.
The harshest sentence of 13 years was handed to former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras who served as the main defendant in absence of Carles Puigdemont, the region's leader who fled Spain to avoid prosecution.
In a tweet from Brussels, Puigdemont denounced the sentences as an "outrage".
"100 years in all. An outrage. Now more than ever, by your side and those of your families. It is time to react as never before," he wrote.
And in a letter to his supporters released on Monday, Junqueras said the story was far from over.
"Nothing ends today, you neither win nor convince," he wrote in remarks directed at Spain's central government. "We will come back even stronger... and win.”
The judge alo issued a new international warrant for the arrest of Puigdemont who fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution over a failed 2017 independence bid.