MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) -Spain on Tuesday pardoned all nine separatist leaders jailed for their role in Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid in a gesture the government hopes will foster dialogue to keep the region part of Spain, deflating its push for self-determination.
The politicians and activists were sentenced in 2019 to between nine and 13 years for sedition and misuse of public funds, after a referendum on a breakaway that courts banned but which led to a short-lived declaration of independence, triggering Spain's worst political crisis in decades.
