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MADRID (AP) — The Latest on Spain's confrontation with Catalan separatists (all times local):
8:10 p.m.
Spain's Supreme Court says international arrest warrants have been issued for six fugitive Catalan politicians, including ousted regional chief Carles Puigdemont, who were indicted for rebellion on Friday.
The arrest orders also affect four more ex members of Puigdemont's cabinet and the separatist ERC party's Marta Rovira, who ignored a court summons on Friday and announced in a letter she was fleeing the country to live "in exile."
Spanish media say Rovira has arrived in Switzerland.
Rovira was only charged with rebellion for the attempt to make Catalonia independent of Spain. The other five Catalan politicians were also charged with misuse of public funds.
Spanish courts sought Puigdemont's extradition from Brussels last year but later canceled that petition amid concerns that Belgium might send him back but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.
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6:30 p.m.
A Spanish Supreme Court judge is sending to jail without bail five Catalan politicians charged with rebellion who showed up for a summons in Madrid.
Former Catalan parliamentary speaker Carme Forcadell, ex-Catalan minister Jordi Turull —who had been proposed as Catalonia's next president— and three more officials are expected to enter prisons Friday near Madrid.
Another summoned politician, the ERC party's Marta Rovira, ignored the court order and announced by letter that she was fleeing the country.
Spain's top prosecutor had demanded that all be jailed since there was a high risk of them repeating the crimes they are accused of.
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5:15 p.m.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he is not enthusiastic about holding another regional election in Catalonia.
The wealthy northeastern region, where pro-independence politicians have been trying to win independence from Spain, held a snap election last December. But it still doesn't have a president or a government because of legal wrangles and political disputes with the national government over the secession bid.
The separatist majority of Catalonia's parliament failed for a third time to elect its candidate as regional president during a vote Thursday. That started a two-month countdown to find a leader and a government, otherwise another election must be called.
Rajoy said Friday in Brussels that he doesn't like repeat elections, saying "people vote and politicians have a duty to resolve problems and not create others."
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12:35 p.m.
Catalonia's fugitive ex-president says he has not spoken to the latest separatist lawmaker to flee Spain.
Speaking at a press conference at the University of Helsinki on Friday, Carles Puigdemont denied discussing exile with Marta Rovira, who defied a summons to appear in Spanish court hours earlier.
Still, Puigdemont says he fully supports her decision to do so.
Puigdemont, who is himself in self-imposed exile in Belgium, also criticized a Spanish judge's decision to charge him and other 12 Catalan separatists with rebellion on Friday.
"It is not right for a judge to do politics," the former leader said just moments after the court ruling.
Puigdemont's comments come one day after the pro-independence majority of Catalonia's parliament failed to elect a regional president.
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12:10 p.m.
A Spanish Supreme Court judge is requiring the 14 members of the former Catalan Cabinet to pay a collective deposit of 2.1 million euros ($2.6 million) before an upcoming trial establishes whether they misused public funds for an illegal independence referendum.
The figure, disclosed in Judge Pablo Llarena's Friday ruling into Spain's gravest political crisis in decades, includes 1.6 million euros of public money which, according to the judicial investigation, were deviated to pay for the Oct. 1 vote in Spain's northeastern region.
The judge also says that the strategy to seek unilateral secession may remain "latent," as the roadmap designed by separatists included plans to renew the leadership of Catalan parties and civil society groups.
Llarena describes the case as "an attack on the constitutional State that, with the will to impose a change in the form of government for Catalonia and the rest of the country, encompasses an unusual gravity and persistence."
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11:30 a.m.
Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena says that Catalan separatist politicians and civil society groups have "colluded" for the past six years to execute a plan to declare Catalonia's independence, in violation of Spain's legal order.
In a court ruling issued Friday at the end of a four-month investigation into the turbulent events that led to a failed declaration of independence, Llarena said that 25 Catalans will be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.
Thirteen, including ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and members of his Cabinet, are charged with rebellion, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
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10:50 a.m.
A Spanish Supreme Court judge has charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians, including fugitive president Carles Puigdemont, with rebellion for their attempt to declare independence from Spain.
Judge Pablo Llarena issued the indictment Friday, wrapping up a four-month long investigation into the events last fall.
Rebellion charges are punishable with up to 30 years in prison under Spanish laws.
Also charged with rebellion are Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, former Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell, separatist activists Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart and ERC party leader Marta Rovira, who on Friday announced that she was fleeing Spain.
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10:40 a.m.
A prominent Catalan separatist politician has defied a summons to appear in a Spanish court and says in a letter to her party followers that she has chosen "the path to exile."
Marta Rovira does not say in the letter whether she has left Spain already or where she might go, but six other Catalan politicians, including ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, earlier fled to Brussels.
As the secretary general of the Catalan republican-left ERC party, Rovira played a key role in last year's events, including an independence referendum that led to a failed attempt to secede from Spain.
"Today I undertake a hard road, a path that, unfortunately, so many others that preceded us have had to take," Rovira wrote in a letter posted on ERC's website. "The path of exile."
The unity of Spain in enshrined in the country's Constitution and secession is not allowed without a reform of the top law.
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10:05 a.m.
A Spanish Supreme Court probe into last year's attempt to secede Catalonia from Spain wraps up Friday with the judge expected to charge 28 regional politicians and separatist leaders with offenses that may include rebellion.
Judge Pablo Llarena has summoned lawyers, prosecutors, as well as six separatist politicians — an indication that he may order them jailed pending trial. They include Jordi Turull, a former minister of the ousted regional Cabinet who on Thursday failed in his bid to be elected as the region's new president, as well as a former speaker of the Catalan parliament and prominent members of the republican-left ERC party.
Four other accused are already in custody and six have fled overseas.
The semiautonomous region has been without a leader for nearly five months after central authorities took control following an illegal independence declaration.
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