Spain's Civil Guard is looking for arguments to base its accusations on that the Catalan government, members of the Parliament's Board and the presidents of the Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural committed the crime of rebellion. They have presented a new statement in which the largest demonstrations in the history of the country, held peacefully since 2013, are characterised with the crime.
The Civil Guard, carrying out an investigation on the orders of the Supreme Court, believes that the pro-independence rallies on 11th September for the Diada, Catalonia's National Day, are rebellion. These rallies, which all had hundreds of thousands of participants, include the 2013 "Catalan Way", a 400 km (250 mile) human chain, the 2014 "V", symbolising "victory, vote and will", which all begin with the letter "v" in Catalan, the 2015 protest carrying a giant arrow along Barcelona's Meridiana avenue, the 2016 decentralised protest held in five cities around Catalonia (Barcelona, Berga, Lleida, Salt and Tarragona) and the latest from this year, forming a giant plus sign.
The Civil Guard doesn't miss the "President, put out the ballot boxes" that Carme Forcadell, later speaker of the Catalan Parliament, shouted from the stage in 2014, nor that then-president, Artur Mas, didn't attend any of the demonstrations. It also refers to comments from Mas on 11th September 2015, quoting him as saying that they would "change the election into the referendum", days before the last Catalan Parliament election.
For the Civil Guard, the demonstrations held in support of those who faced trial and were convicted over the unofficial 2014 referendum, Artur Mas, Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau are also rebellion.