SPAIN’S supreme court has dismissed charges of rebellion against Catalan independence leaders – the most serious offences they faced which could have landed them prison sentences of up to a quarter of a century.

However, the nine who were tried for rebellion – including former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and Carme Forcadell, former speaker of the Catalan parliament – could still be found guilty of the lesser offence of sedition, which could still result in jail terms of up to 12 years.

Under Spanish law rebellion requires violence for a conviction to be secured and, in this case it was said to have been instigated by nine of the accused to achieve independence.

Legal sources said the court understood that “consummate rebellion” had not been committed by any of those who were tried.

The development came as the seven supreme court judges finalised their ruling in the case, which they are expected to deliver on Monday.

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According to the Madrid daily El Pais, they concluded there were at least two days of violence during the independence process – October 1, 2017, the day of the referendum and what they described as “a siege by 40,000 people” at the economy ministry the month before.

The latter was organised by pro-indy groups the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Omnium Cultural, whose respective leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart have been in “preventive detention” for two years.

While their objective was to impede a search for material relating to the referendum, which Spain had declared illegal, legal sources said the judges indicated there was no evidence that they were organised to achieve independence by force.

However, the sources said they understood there was violence during the resistance to riot police by voters on October 1 that did not reach the level of rebellion. They appear to have made no mention of footage circulating on social media that showed riot police beating people trying to vote.

The importance of the judges’ decision could be “hugely significant”, according to a Catalan source, who told The National: “It would mean Scotland, Brussels and Germany were right in refusing extradition on rebellion grounds. Without rebellion, clearly no-one should have been locked up in custody for two years awaiting trial in my opinion.”

They said those who had been elected this year had been stopped from taking up their seats either in Madrid or Strasbourg, based largely on the rebellion charges. Taking that out of the equation, they said any sentences should be “significantly less” and there was a very slim chance that some might be acquitted: “Then things will get very interesting.”