MADRID — The Spanish Supreme Court on Monday sentenced former leaders of the Catalan independence movement to lengthy prison terms after finding them guilty of sedition for their botched attempt to break away from Spain in 2017.
The court verdicts followed a landmark trial in which 12 leaders of the Catalan independence movement stood accused of crimes ranging from rebellion and sedition to misuse of public funds.
The court sentenced nine of the 12 former leaders to prison for sedition, as well as for misusing public funds. The remaining three were sentenced for the lesser crime of disobedience during the events two years ago, which culminated in an unconstitutional referendum followed by a declaration of independence in October 2017.
The ruling came amid another buildup of tensions in Catalonia, the wealthy northeastern region where the Spanish authorities have recently deployed anti-riot police to prepare for any major street protests in response to the court’s decision.
It also came ahead of a repeat national election on Nov. 10, called after Pedro Sánchez, the caretaker Socialist prime minister, failed to get sufficient support from smaller parties in Parliament to form a government. It will be Spain’s fourth election in four years, highlighting the country’s political polarization and fragmentation.
President Trump on Sunday said there is widespread support in Washington to impose new sanctions against Turkey over its swift incursion into northern Syria.
Specific details about the sanctions were unclear but Trump said on Twitter, "Treasury is ready to go, additional legislation may be sought. There is great consensus on this. Turkey has asked that it not be done. Stay tuned!"
Reuters, citing an unnamed U.S. official, reported that the measures were being “worked out at all levels of the government for rollout.”
Over the past five days, Turkish troops and their allies have pushed their way into northern towns and villages, clashing with the Kurdish fighters over a stretch of 125 miles. The offensive has displaced at least 130,000 people.
On Sunday, at least nine people, including five civilians, were killed in Turkish airstrikes on a convoy in the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ayn, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian Kurdish officials.
The New York Times reported that the troop advancement was so fast, they seized a road that complicated the U.S. troop pullout.
Trump has faced criticism over his decision to give Turkey a green light for the offensive. Critics said the U.S. abandoned its Kurdish allies that were credited for their actions to defeat ISIS. Trump has insisted that he wants to pull U.S. troops out of endless wars.
Trump was criticized by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for his initial decision, but was praised Sunday night for working with Congress “to impose crippling sanctions against Turkeys (sic) outrageous aggression/war crimes in Syria.”
Boris Johnson has told the cabinet there is still a "significant amount of work" to do, as UK and EU officials hold talks on getting a deal in place before the 31 October Brexit deadline.
But the prime minister said there was "a way forward" that could "secure all our interests".
Parliament will meet on Saturday and vote on any deal achieved by Mr Johnson at a Brussels summit this week.
Labour said it would "wait and see" but would oppose anything "damaging".
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "We don't think the Tories have moved too far on their deal."
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon told the same programme: "We will not vote for the kind of deal specified by Boris Johnson."
Talks in Brussels between UK and EU officials - described as "intense technical discussions" - are continuing on Sunday.
House of Commons Leader Rees-Mogg wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: "In the final stages of the Brexit negotiation, compromise will inevitably be needed, something even the staunchest Leavers recognise albeit unwillingly - but as a Leaver Boris can be trusted."
Ambassadors to the EU from 27 member countries are scheduled to meet this evening and Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, is expected to brief them on the talks.
The summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday is seen as the final chance to get a Brexit deal agreed ahead of the deadline of 23:00 GMT on 31 October.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: "The prime minister updated cabinet on the current progress being made in ongoing Brexit negotiations, reiterating that a pathway to a deal could be seen but that there is still a significant amount of work to get there and we must remain prepared to leave on 31 October."
Mr Johnson believed a deal could "respect the Good Friday Agreement", signed in 1998 in an effort to end the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
It could also "get rid of" the backstop - the plan to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic - which the government says threatens the future of the UK.
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Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson told Sky News that any agreement reached by Mr Johnson should "be put to the public so they can have the final say".
But asked whether more MPs would be likely to support a deal, if the Commons first voted in favour of putting it to a referendum, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "I think many in Parliament, not necessarily Labour MPs - others - might be inclined to support it because they don't really agree with the deal.
"I would caution them on this."
Asked about Labour's stance, Home Secretary Priti Patel replied: "They are clearly playing politics. The British public want to ensure that we get Brexit done."
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Mr Johnson's revised proposals - designed to avoid concerns about the backstop - were criticised by EU leaders at the start of last week.
However, on Thursday, Mr Johnson and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar held talks and said they could "see a pathway to a possible deal".
The Benn Act, passed by Parliament last month, requires Mr Johnson to ask EU leaders for a delay to Brexit if a deal has not been reached and agreed to by MPs by 19 October.
The first Queen's Speech of Mr Johnson's premiership, delivered during the State Opening of Parliament on Monday, will see the government highlight its priorities, including on Brexit.
Timeline: What's happening ahead of Brexit deadline?
Monday 14 October - The Commons is due to return, and the government will use the Queen's Speech to set out its legislative agenda. The speech will then be debated by MPs throughout the week.
Thursday 17 October - Crucial two-day summit of EU leaders begins in Brussels. This is the last such meeting currently scheduled before the Brexit deadline.
Saturday 19 October - Special sitting of Parliament and the date by which the PM must ask the EU for another delay to Brexit under the Benn Act, if no Brexit deal has been approved by Parliament and they have not agreed to the UK leaving with no-deal.
Thursday 31 October - Date by which the UK is due to leave the EU, with or without a withdrawal agreement.
Hundreds of people affiliated with the Islamic State escaped a camp where they were being held on Sunday after Turkish forces approached the Kurdish-held town, Kurdish officials said.
About 950 ISIS-connected foreigners managed to leave the camp, located in Ain Eissa, roughly 20 miles south of the border, after detainees apparently attacked the camp's guards and gates and fled, the Kurdish-led administration said in a statement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said Turkish warplanes struck villages near the camp on Sunday. They didn't provide the exact number of residents who fled the camp, but said clashes broke out between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and Kurdish forces.
Roughly 12,000 people, including nearly 1,000 foreign women with links to ISIS and their children, live in the camp. The town of Ain Eissa is also home to one of the largest U.S.-led coalition bases in northeastern Syria.
The Kurdish forces, who partnered with the U.S. in the fight against ISIS, say they may not be able to maintain detention facilities holding thousands of militants as they struggle to stem the Turkish advance.
Turkish forces have been pushing toward the town as part of their offensive against Kurdish-led forces — fighters which Turkey believes are terrorists because of their links to the insurgency in its southeast. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey won't stop until the Syrian Kurdish forces withdraw at least 20 miles from the border.
Turkey launched an operation to carve out a "safe zone" along the border earlier this week after President Trump moved U.S. forces aside, saying he was committed to getting out of America's "endless" wars.
On Saturday, the president announced the release of $50 million in aid to human rights groups and other aid organizations in Syria in an apparent attempt to counter the criticism he's received about the pullout.
“Other presidents would not be doing that, they’d be spending a lot more money but on things that wouldn’t make you happy," Trump said while addressing a gala dinner. "The U.S. condemns the persecution of Christians and we pledge our support to Christians all over.
Fox News' Morgan Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Turkey-backed Syrian fighters enter Ras al-Yan, Syria on Oct. 12.
BEIRUT — Videos posted on social media showing at least one execution-style killing have called into question the discipline of the soldiers engaged in Turkey’s five-day old effort to seize territory controlled by the Kurds allies in northeastern Syria.
The most gruesome and explicit of the videos shows Turkish-allied Syrian fighters pumping bursts of automatic fire into the body of a bound man lying on the side of a desert road as a gunman shouts to his comrades to take his phone and film him doing the shooting. Another trembling, handcuffed man crouches on the opposite side of the road as the shooting erupts. “Kill them,” one man is heard shouting.
The video is one of a series of photographs and videos posted on Twitter accounts of the Turkish-backed rebel groups and circulated by the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces that suggest some of the Syrian rebels participating in Turkey’s offensive to capture territory in Syria may have committed war crimes.
The Turkish army is leading the incursion, but is relying heavily on Syrian rebels to provide the manpower for the effort to drive the Kurdish-led SDF away from Turkey’s border.
A separate video shows the fighters crowding round a black, bullet ridden SUV that had apparently come under a hail of gunfire before being forced to stop. As the fighters step over the body of a dead man in civilian clothing to reach inside the vehicle, a female voice is briefly heard coming from the back seat.
“Another fleeing pig has been liquidated by the hands of the National Army. He was fleeing in an armored car,” says one of the fighters as the others clamor to be filmed
What happened next is unclear, but the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the woman in the car was Kurdish politician, Hevrin Khalaf, whose body was found later in the day in a nearby morgue. Khalaf was the secretary general of a newly established party, the Future Party of Syria.
A Turkish newspaper, Yeni Safak, trumpeted her killing as a “successful operation” against a politician affiliated with the “terrorist” People’s Democratic Union, the Kurdish political party that runs northeast Syria.
The newspaper said she had been “neutralized” in the operation, and described her death as a big setback for the group.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, a total of nine civilians were executed on Saturday at the roadblock to the south of the town of Tal Abyad. Several other photos and videos posted by the Ahrar al-Sharqiya rebel group, which was apparently among those involved in manning the roadblock, show captured men surrounded by fighters on the side of the road.
Ahrar al-Sharqiyeh is composed of fighters mostly from the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, much of which is currently controlled by the SDF.
The Syrian National Army, an umbrella group uniting a number of Syrian rebel factions, condemned the killing in a statement and said it had launched an investigation into what it said represented a violation of “the standards and values that we commit to.”
The videoed killing and others that may have occurred off camera almost certainly constitute a war crime, according to international law, and may breach one of the conditions Trump set for allowing the Turkish offensive to go ahead unhindered by U.S. troops in the area. In a tweet last week he cautioned the Turks not to undertake any “unforced or unnecessary fighting” or else they would face measures against their economy and currency.
Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish forces, which were key U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State, as a terrorist group on its doorstep and a threat to its national security.
In past impeachment proceedings, the courts have undermined the President's wishes. During Whitewater, President Bill Clinton was forced by a unanimous Supreme Court to testify under oath in a civil lawsuit, which led to his impeachment for lying and obstruction. During Watergate, President Richard Nixon faced multiple fast-moving court cases that ultimately forced details to Congress and prosecutors that prompted his resignation before the full House voted on articles of impeachment.
In a hearing Tuesday, Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court, the first-line trial court in most separation of powers fights, grilled a Justice Department lawyer who argued to keep information known to the executive branch away from the House.
Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court pictured on April 13, 2018. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Howell pressed the administration attorney on legal precedent -- what Howell must decide under the law based on past decisions from courts above. When the lawyer suggested that a judge in 1974 would have not handed a grand jury's collection of evidence to the House of Representatives during Watergate if the case had arisen today, "Wow," Howell exclaimed.
Howell also bluntly told the Justice Department's legal team she would need to back the House in its needs during a formal impeachment proceeding.
"By my reading of the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit law, I owe enormous deference, if not absolute deference, when it comes to the exercise of the impeachment power to how the House decides to conduct itself," Howell said Tuesday.
Michael Gerhardt, a CNN analyst and University of North Carolina law professor, pointed to moments in the Howell hearing as an example of how far Trump's legal team has swerved from history.
The "argument shows not just how aggressive the President is being, but how much disdain they have for settled law. Most judges would just recoil at that," Gerhardt said.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish forces targeted areas around two Syrian border towns with fresh shelling on Sunday, pressing on with their offensive against Kurdish militia for a fifth day in the face of fierce international opposition.
Smoke rises near the border town of Tel Abyad, Syria, October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Turkey is facing threats of possible sanctions from the United States unless it calls off the incursion, while the Arab League has denounced the operation and NATO allies Germany and France said they were halting weapons exports to Turkey.
Ankara launched the cross-border assault against the YPG militia after U.S President Donald Trump withdrew some U.S. troops from the border region. Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist group aligned with Kurdish militants in Turkey.
Gunfire resounded early on Sunday around Ras al Ain, one of two Syrian towns which are the focus of the attack, while Turkish artillery continued to target the area, a Reuters reporter across the border in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar said.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels advanced into Ras al Ain on Saturday. Turkey has said it took control of the town center, while Kurdish-led forces denied that and said they were counter-attacking.
At Tel Abyad, the operation’s other main target some 120 km (75 miles) to the west, Turkish howitzers shelled outlying districts, a witness in the neighboring Turkish town of Akcakale said.
The assault has raised international alarm over its mass displacement of civilians and the possibility of Islamic State militants escaping from Kurdish prisons.
In the latest criticism, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed “grave concern” about the offensive to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, saying it may worsen the humanitarian situation and undermine progress against Islamic State.
“He urged the President to end the operation and enter into dialogue,” a spokesman for Johnson said after the telephone call between the two leaders on Saturday evening.
Turkey’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that 480 YPG militants had been “neutralised” since the operation began, a term that commonly means killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization which reports on the war, said 74 Kurdish-led fighters, 49 Turkey-backed Syrian rebels and 30 civilians have been killed in the fighting.
In Turkey, 18 civilians have been killed in cross-border bombardment, Turkish media and officials say.
President Trump on Saturday defended his decision to withdraw troops from the Syrian border region, telling conservative Christian activists that the United States should prioritize protecting its own borders.
“Let them have their borders, but I don’t think our soldiers should be there for the next 50 years guarding a border between Turkey and Syria when we can’t guard our own borders at home,” Trump said in a speech in Washington.
“Don’t forget: they are fighting for their land. They haven’t help us fight for our land,” Trump said. “They’re fighting for their land and that’s good, but we’ve helped them.”
The Kurdish-led administration in Syria’s northeast has said nearly 200,000 people had been uprooted so far by the fighting, while the U.N. World Food Programme said more than 100,000 had left Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad.
Turkey’s stated objective is to set up a “safe zone” inside Syria to resettle many of the 3.6 million Syrian war refugees it has been hosting. Erdogan has threatened to send them to Europe if the EU does not back his assault.
He has also dismissed the growing condemnation of the operation, saying that Turkey “will not stop it, no matter what anyone says”.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in which the YPG comprises the main fighting element, holds most of the northern Syrian territory that once made up Islamic State’s “caliphate” in the country.
The SDF has been keeping thousands of fighters from the jihadist group in jail and tens of thousands of their family members in camps. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a car bomb on Friday in Qamishli, the largest city in the Kurdish-held area, where some IS militants fled from a jail.
The SDF accused Turkey-backed rebel fighters of killing a Kurdish politician in a road ambush on Saturday. The rebel force denied it, saying it had not advanced that far.
Slideshow (7 Images)
The Syrian Observatory said Turkey-backed groups had killed nine civilians on the road, including Hervin Khalaf, co-chair of the secular Future Syria Party.
For a graphic on 'Turkey hits Kurdish militia targets' click here
Reporting by Daren Butler and Reuters correspondents in the region; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle
