Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer Carles PuigdemontJordi SànchezJordi Cuixart Josep Lluís TraperoTeresa Laplana[1] The Operation Anubis was a police operation in Catalonia, Spain, initiated on 20 September 2017 by the Civil Guard following orders of the trial court number 13 of Barcelona,[3][4][5] directed by judge Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer.

[7][8][9] Different headquarters of the Generalitat de Catalunya were searched and 14 people were arrested, including high ranking administrative staff, and company CEO's involved in the preparation of the referendum.

[20][21] The investigation started due a complaint presented by the far-right political party Vox and an anonymous complainant, in response to a claim from Catalan judge and politician Santiago Vidal assuring that preparations for the referendum were underway.

[23][24][25] On 9 September, Spanish Civil Guard raided the headquarters of the weekly newspaper El Vallenc for being allegedly linked to the preparation of the independence referendum, about 200 people gathered in front of the building to support the journalists being investigated.

[26] On the same day, the Civil Guard also raided the printing office Indugraf Offset in Constantí searching for ballots and material related to the Catalan referendum.

Hundreds of protesters practiced nonviolent resistance sitting in front of the offices in order to block the access, delaying the action of the judicial committee for hours.

[29][30][15] During these raids the Spanish Civil Guard arrested 14 people, most of them high-ranking members from the Generalitat of Catalonia, but also CEOs of private companies or just administrative staff.

The party made several calls to the citizenship to "go to protect our headquarters" and organized a sit-in protest in order to block Spanish police access to their offices which gathered thousands of people.

[35] David Fernàndez, member of CUP, defined the intend to enter their headquarters without a court order as a "flagrant crime against fundamental, civil and political rights".

[51][15][52][53][54][55] The solution to leave through the roof terrace of the neighbouring building was proposed by Mossos after the court clerk rejected to use the human corridor created by the police.

[16][56] Civil Guard stayed inside the building until the demonstration was called off and Mossos cleared the zone, so they could get access to the three cars that were parked in front of the Catalan economy department.

[36] An investigation from the newspaper El Món in 2019, reported that none of the Civil Guard officers that left unguarded weapons inside the cars was sanctioned by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.

[63][64][65] In Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona an audience at the representation of Il Viaggio a Reims sang the Catalan anthem, Els Segadors, and shouted pro-Catalan independence slogans.

Those entities included all Catalan public universities (UB, UAB, UdG, UPF, UdL, URV, UPC, UOC), the biggest Catalan workers and students unions including CCOO and UGT, sport clubs like FC Barcelona and Girona FC, more than 20 professional associations, the Confederation of Neighborhood Associations of Catalonia, NGO's like FundiPau, music festivals like Primavera Sound and cultural organizations like Fundació Antoni Tàpies.

[71][72] The Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural organised a demonstration in Passeig de Lluís Companys in front of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia calling for the release of those, while carrying signs reading "Stop dictatorship" and "We want to vote".

[76][77] University students in some areas abandoned their classes and disrupted traffic on Avinguda Diagonal and joined demonstrations in front of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia.

[80] The Regional Council of Sardinia also unanimously approved a motion on 21 September 2017 expressing solidarity with Catalonia and offering to print and store the necessary ballots for the referendum while asking the international community to intervene and ensure that Catalans could vote and decide on their self-determination.

[88] According to the judge the actions of Sànchez and Cruixat are within the scope of sedition, a felony regulated by the article 544 and subsequents of the Spanish Criminal Code:[3][62] Conviction for sedition shall befall those who, without being included in the felony of rebellion, public and tumultuously rise up to prevent, by force or outside the legal channels, application of the laws, or any authority, official corporation or public officer from lawful exercise of the duties thereof or implementation of the resolutions thereof, or of administrative or judicial resolutions.Footage from that night shows Cuixart and Sànchez at 11pm calling off the protests, contradicting the part where the judicial order imprisoning them says that "they did not use at any time the control they had over the people to call off the demonstration they had summoned".

[98][99][100] This situation was defined as "censorship" by many and was denounced by Internet-related organizations from around the world including Internet Society, APC, EFF, The Tor Project and Xnet.

[105] Both Mossos d'Esquadra Major Josep Lluís Trapero Álvarez and Barcelona Intendant Teresa Laplana Cocera were also charged with sedition because of the role played by the regional police.

[109] In July 2018, several international personalities including Jody Williams, Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Ben Emmerson, Bill Shipsey and Martín Caparrós joined in a video produced by Òmnium and demanded the release of the Catalan leaders.

[110] On 8 August 2018, PEN International made another statement asking Spanish authorities to release Cuixart and Sànchez and considered their detentions to be "an excessive and disproportionate restriction on their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly".