NINE political prisoners who have been on trial over their role in the 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia yesterday returned to Catalan prisons from their incarceration in Madrid.

It took three days to transfer the seven male prisoners and only one day to transfer the two women who are detained – which Catalan President Quim Torra described as “monumental indecency and humiliation”.

They were in prisons near Barcelona for eight months before their trial – in which the verdicts are not expected until autumn.

Txell Bonet, wife of grassroots activist Jordi Cuixart, called for the prisoners’ freedom.

She said: “I want to say that for now, freedom has not been granted, which is demanded from international bodies and that it is totally fair.”

Activists displayed yellow bows and symbols around the jails before prisoners arrived.