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The Catalan government's foreign action minister and former mayor of the town of Agramunt, Bernat Solé, told the Catalan High Court (TSJC) today that he had been notified that the Constitutional Court had suspended the holding of the Catalan independence referendum on 1st October 2017, and he commented: "From the order given by the Constitutional Court I did not believe that I needed to change my opinion."

Solé is the second person who was mayor of a Catalan municipality in 2017 to be tried for their actions relating to the referendum. However, his current status, as a minister in the Catalan government, has meant that the case has jumped to a more senior court, the TSJC, and the judicial machinery against the independence movement and the 2017 referendum has been set in motion again.

The trial lasted just over two hours and is now awaiting the judge's verdict.

During the trial, all of Bernat Solé's movements with regard to the referendum were examined. The prosecution is trying to prove that the minister worked to promote the referendum and has included in his indictment Solé's participation in a debate on self-determination, in which he says he took part as a representative of his party, ERC, and not as mayor.

The TSJC is prosecuting Solé for an alleged offence of disobedience on 1st October, when he was mayor of Agramunt, for allegedly promoting and participating in the organization of the referendum in the town. The prosecutors are calling for 18 months' disqualification from holding public office and a fine of 24,000 euros.

Solé agreed to answer all of the questions raised by the prosecutor as well as those of his lawyer, and he defended that on the day of the vote in 2017 his actions were "those that were appropriate for any mayor, as maximum representative of Civil Protection" in a municipality. In this regard, he said that he only intervened to preserve public order and protect property, and said that for this reason "at no time" did he suggest that the ballot boxes should be hidden in the false ceiling of the school where the voting took place.

In fact, when it was proposed to hide the ballot boxes in the false ceiling of the toilets, Solé said he asked for this not to be done so as not to cause further damage. That’s why organizers hid the ballot boxes several times in a nearby home. “Above all I wanted to preserve public order,” assured Solé.

"I did not take part in the logistics, or in the movement of the ballot boxes or in the constitution of the polling station," said Solé in defence of his role on the 1st October 2017.