No end to unrest in Spain’s Catalonia after separatists ordered to prison

BARCELONA, Spain — Masses of flag-waving demonstrators demanding Catalonia’s independence and the release from prison of separatist leaders jammed central Barcelona on Friday as the northeastern Spanish region endured its fifth straight day of unrest.

More than a half million protesters, including families with children, marched in the Catalan capital, according to local police. Many were clad in pro-independence “estelada” flags and shouted “Independence!” and “Freedom for political prisoners!”

Some had walked for three days in five huge “freedom marches” from towns across the northeastern Spanish region. They converged on Barcelona, a city of 1.6 million people, and joined students and workers who also took to the streets during a 24-hour general strike.

Around 400 people, roughly half of them police officers, have been injured according to regional and central authorities, and 128 arrested since separatist sentiment surged on Monday, when the Supreme Court sentenced to lengthy prison terms nine separatist politicians and activists. The nine had led a 2017 push for independence that triggered Spain’s deepest political crisis in decades.

This week’s huge show of support at times turned violent, with some protesters and riot police fighting running battles.

On Friday, the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, though police clashed with a few hundred young protesters who hurled bottles, eggs and paint at the gates of the police headquarters in the center of the city. Large trash containers were burned before police responded, using rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Albert Ramon, a 43-year-old public servant joining a Friday rally in the northern city of Girona, said the convictions — including fines for three more separatists...