Catalan MP and leading independence activist flees country to avoid facing trial in Madrid

'Since I will not have a fair trial at home, I have looked for a country that can protect my rights'

Anna Gabriel said she may apply for political asylum in Switzerland (Getty)

A leading politician from Catalonia’s pro-independence movement has fled Spain, claiming she will not get a fair trial over her alleged role in the region’s declaration of independence last year.

Anna Gabriel, a well-known former deputy in the Catalan parliament for the hard-left CUP party, has headed to Switzerland rather than go to Madrid this week to face charges in Spain’s Supreme Court.

“Since I will not have a fair trial at home, I have looked for a country that can protect my rights,” Ms Gabriel told Swiss newspaper Le Temps on Tuesday.

“I won’t go to Madrid. I’m wanted for my political activities and the government press has already declared me guilty.”

In a television interview, Ms Gabriel said she was considering asking for permanent political asylum in Switzerland should there be an extradition request from Spain, saying she will be more useful to her party in Geneva than “behind bars”. She also said that she has regularly received death threats from unspecified individuals.

Shortly after a failed unilateral declaration of independence was made by the Catalan parliament last autumn, the region’s former president Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium with four former cabinet ministers. Mr Puigdemont, who has also ignored a court summons, faces similar possible charges to Ms Gabriel of sedition and rebellion.

So far, four separatists have been imprisoned pending sedition charges, including the former regional vice-president, Oriol Junqueras.

A high number of pro-independence leaders currently face possible trials in Spain, most due to take place later this year. Another CUP politician Mireia Boya was also due to appear in court on Wednesday, as was former Catalan president Artur Mas on Tuesday. Both were set to make statements to the judge about the banned pro-independence referendum on 1 October.

The CUP has been one of the most hardline supporters of independence, and its fragile alliance with more moderate separatist parties was instrumental in allowing the nationalists to hold a narrow majority in the currently dissolved Catalan parliament.

Ms Gabriel was known to be in Switzerland since last Saturday. It was initially reported that she had travelled to Geneva to work with a local international human rights lawyer to prepare her defence.

Earlier this week Ines Arrimadas, head of the pro-unionist party Ciudadanos in Catalonia, had described Ms Gabriel’s departure for Switzerland as another example the independence leaders “trying to save themselves”. “They’d tried to sell the idea of the [Catalan] Republic and that we’d all be rich and happy and now they’re making a break for it,” she said.

The CUP, meanwhile, have insisted that Ms Gabriel’s trial was politically motivated, and expressed their support for their former MP.

While not part of the EU, Switzerland does have an extradition pact with Spain, although it is not clear if the charges that could affect Ms Gabriel are included in it.