By Sergio Garcia Hernandez
BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Spain's city of Barcelona lived its most violent day on Friday since protests began against the ruling issued by the country's Supreme Court that sentenced nine Catalan independence leaders last Monday, with sentences between nine to 13 years in prison.
The riots began in the Via Layetana and extended to the historic Plaza de Cataluna in the center of the city. Another of the places where the disorders were presented was the Urquinaona Square.
The violent events in the city, on the fifth day of protests against the sentence, left at least 17 people arrested and 62 injured, as reported by the health services of Barcelona in information published by the newspaper El Pais de Espana.
Images from the local press showed about the end of the Via Layetana day near the Urquinaona Square full of rubble, with burned and destroyed fences.
Catalan police, known as the Mossos de Escuadra, reported that some fires were caused by protesters and asked local citizens "not to go to Urquinaona Square or its nearby streets."
Local media also showed that the police threw tear gas against the protesters amid the violence that broke out at night after a day in which nearly 500,000 people had moved peacefully through the main streets of Barcelona.
Demonstrators who walked from nearby towns such as Tarrega, Girona and Berga that are about 100 kilometers away came to the mobilizations this Friday in Barcelona.
The protests were called under the motto "march for freedom". The protesters were mobilized with flags of the Catalan region and posters with phrases like "freedom" and "stop the repression."
The massive strike was fulfilled after five days of protests where there have been continuous clashes between police forces and protesters.
The Emergency Medical Service (Sem) of Catalonia has reported that the riots in Catalonia have left nearly 400 injured since the Supreme Court issued the ruling.
- Nine convicted independence leaders
The former vice-president of the Catalan Government, Oriol Junqueras, faced the highest sentence imposed by the Supreme Court when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison and disability in public office.
Former counsel Raul Romeva, Jordi Turull and Dolors Bassa were sentenced to 12 years in prison and disability.
Carme Forcadell, former president of the Parliament of Catalonia, was sentenced to 11 years and six months in jail and prohibition of participation in public office.
Former advisers Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull were sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison and disability.
The leaders of the Catalan National Assembly, Jordi Sanchez and the Cultural Omnium, Jordi Cuixart, were sentenced, in turn, to nine years in prison and prohibition of linking to public office.