Spain's penal code reforms soften penalties linked to Catalan separatist leaders

FILE PHOTO: Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attends a news conference at the end of the Green Hydrogen Corridor Summit Barcelona-Marseille (H2MED), an annex event to the IX Euro-Mediterranean Summit (EU-MED9), in Alicante, Spain, December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura/File Photo

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's upper house of parliament on Thursday passed reforms to the penal code affecting crimes for which several Catalan leaders were convicted after their 2017 bid for the region's independence resulted in a constitutional crisis.

The overhaul removed the archaic sedition law, for which some separatist politicians were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison, replacing it with a lesser offence of aggravated public disorder, which carries a maximum term of three years.