Let's talk, says Spain, as jailed Catalan separatists are pardoned

FILE PHOTO: A protester waves an Estelada (Catalan separatist flag) during a demonstration outside the airport, after a verdict in a trial over a banned independence referendum,in Barcelona, Spain October 14, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File Photo

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.