The newspaper The Washington Post, one of the most important in the USA, has reported on the ongoing Catalan independence trial underway in Spain's Supreme Court in a report entitled "Is the Catalan separatist trial in Spain about law or politics?".
The newspaper interviews lawyer Gonzalo Boye, who represents president Carles Puigdemont. They quote Boye as saying the judges "have decided that the Catalan issue is so relevant that they can’t leave it in the hands of the politicians". "And this is tremendous because it’s a political problem, not a judicial problem," he continued.
The Post notes that independence supporters complain about the defendants having been held in pretrial detention and that the "court is inherently biased against them". They also note that, like in the USA, the judges on Spain's Supreme Court are political appointees.
According to the newspaper, the trial is seen in Madrid as a "necessity to maintain the rule of law", whilst in Barcelona it's considered "political theater — thwarting the will of the people who voted for independence and threatening anyone else from pursuing independence in the future".
Among the others interviewed by the newspaper are the spokesperson for Judges for Democracy, Ignacio González Vega, who said "the court is showing itself to be independent and impartial" and Jean-François Blanco, French lawyer and international observer, who is "not as sanguine". He says he was "shocked" by the "surrealist" decision to not show video evidence during the questioning of witnesses. "Who interviews police officers without showing the videos of the incidents concerned," he asked.
The journalists end their report by talking to one of the men behind Spain's Constitution, Miquel Roca. He says it's "not a constitutional problem", but a political one. "What’s missing is political will. Pacts are for the brave," he concludes.