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People are angry with the High Court decision
Crowds have gathered in Barcelona to protest against the jailing of two leaders of the Catalan separatist movement.
Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart are being held without bail while they are under investigation for sedition.
The men were leading figures in the disputed 1 October independence vote, which Madrid has branded illegal.
Spain’s Constitutional Court appeared to back central government’s position on Tuesday, ruling the vote void.
It had initially suspended the law used by Catalan authorities to call the referendum.
However, Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull suggested neither the court decision nor the imprisonment of Mr Sánchez and Mr Cuixxart was going to stop the drive for independence, telling reporters “surrender is not something this government is considering”.
Catalan leader Carles Puigdement has already signed a declaration of independence, but halted its implementation to allow negotiations as he called for talks to take place over the next two months.
The position still stands, Mr Turull said.
But the Spanish government has warned that Catalonia must revoke the declaration or face direct rule from Madrid.
Mr Puigdemont has also angered Madrid by refusing to clarify whether or not he declared independence last week. He has until Thursday to clarify his position.
In Barcelona, the imprisonment of Mr Sánchez, who heads the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a pro-independence organisation, and Mr Cuixart, leader of Omnium Cultural, sent thousands of their supporters into the street, chanting “repression is not the solution”.
The men are being investigated over a protest on 20 September in which a crowd blocked Civil Guard officers inside a building in Barcelona, Catalonia’s regional capital.
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau – who does not support the current bid for Catalan independence – said they were being held as “political prisoners”.
Mr Puigdemont had also said the jailing of the men, known fondly as “the two Jordis”, was like having “political prisoners again”, a nod to the days when Catalan culture was systematically suppressed under Francsico Franco.
Spanish Justice Minister Rafael Catala dismissed the allegations, however, saying it was purely a judicial decision.
“These are not political prisoners because yesterday’s prison ruling was due to a [suspected] crime,” he said.
Further protests, which are expected to attract even larger crowds, are planned in Barcelona this evening.
Mr Cuixart instructs separatists to “never lose hope because the people of Catalonia have earned their future”.
How the Spanish press sees it
El Periódico (Barcelona, unionist): “The ‘process’ had been having an incredibly quiet few days. That was until the news of the detention without bail for the presidents of the two main pro-independence civil society organisations, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, which has shaken up the landscape in a way that should have been registered by seismographs.”
Ara (Barcelona, pro-independence): “With separatists and the Spanish government looking to see who moves the next piece, the National Court turned over the table yesterday”.
Just hours before the ruling, the High Court freed the head of Catalonia’s police force, Josep Lluis Trapero.
His force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, is accused of failing to help Spain’s Guardia Civil police tackle thousands of pro-independence protesters in Barcelona during the run-up to the referendum.
Prosecutors had called for him to be held in detention.
BBC