A Spanish court has awarded serious punishment to the political leaders, who led a violent separatist movement in the Spanish region of Catalonia around two years ago.

The punishment has been awarded to nearly nine leaders. Some of them has got thirteen years imprisonment, and the rest has received not less than nine.  

The leaders, including former Catalan Vice-President Oriol Junqueras, have been found guilty of the serious charge of sedition.

The court has acquitted as many as nine other political leaders, who were charged with similar charges including rioting.

All the accused leaders have pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them by the Spanish government.

The court has lent its ears to most of those pleas. In the case of the convicted leaders, the court has found the grounds, on which the charges against them have been erected, relevant.

The Catalan referendum movement is the most powerful political movement the European country of Spain has witnessed in its recent history.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people have gathered in all major Catalonian cities, including Barcelona, to express their solidarity with the independence leaders of the region ahead of the controversial verdict, which has shacked the heart of many Catalonians, mostly those in favour of the separatist movement.

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