Spain's upper house of parliament on Thursday passed reforms to the penal code affecting crimes for which several Catalan leaders were convicted after their 2017 bid for the region's independence resulted in a constitutional crisis.
The overhaul removed the archaic sedition law, for which some separatist politicians were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison, replacing it with a lesser offence of aggravated public disorder, which carries a maximum term of three years.
The changes by the leftist minority government also included lowering the penalty on misuse of public funds to between one and four years in prison from up to six years if personal enrichment is not established as a motive.
These reforms could lead to a revision of sentences of several high-profile leaders from Catalonia and the potential return to Spain of former regional president Carles Puigdemont, who is living a self-imposed exile in Belgium.
In Oct. 2017, a referendum on the prosperous northeastern region's secession from the rest of the country, which was deemed unconstitutional by the judiciary, led to the Catalan government unilaterally declaring independence.
Madrid then triggered a constitutional article that stripped the devolved region from its autonomy and deposed the head of its government, Puigdemont.
Several high-profile leaders in the independence movement were prosecuted and convicted of charges that included sedition and misuse of public funds.
While nine of them were pardoned by the Spanish government in June, they are still banned from holding public office due to their convictions.
Meanwhile, the conservative opposition has accused the government of seeking to appease pro-independence Catalan party ERC and secure the support of its lawmakers for the 2023 budget.
Both the ruling Socialist Party and ERC have denied that the criminal code reform and the budget, which was passed by the Senate late on Tuesday, were linked to each other.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said the changes aim to harmonise Spain's laws with those of other European democracies.
(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
