Operation Anubis  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, directed by judge Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer. Its aim was to dismantle the framework of the Catalan independence referendum of 1 October 2017, that was suspended on 6 September 2017 by the Constitutional Court of Spain as breaching the 1978 Constitution. 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. Simultaneously, several printing and media companies were searched looking for ballot papers and boxes. More than 140 websites were shut down by the Spanish justice and police. Crowds gathered around Catalan regional ministries to support those arrested and protest against the searches. About 40,000 demonstrators surrounded the Catalan economy department heeding a call made by pro-independence groups Òmnium Cultural and ANC. One vehicle of the Civil Guard was damaged. The autonomous police force of Catalonia, Mossos d'Esquadra, recognized that there was a risk situation. Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart—leaders of ANC and Òmnium Cultural— and the Mossos d'Esquadra Major Josep Lluís Trapero Álvarez have been accused of sedition, a felony regulated by the article 544 and subsequents of the Spanish Criminal Code, for allegedly encouraging protesters to hinder the Spanish police raids to dismantle the framework of the referendum. On 16 October 2017, Sànchez and Cuixart were provisionally put into jail without bail pending the investigation. On 14 October 2019, the Spanish Supreme Court condemned Sànchez and Cuixart to a nine-year sentence after considering them guilty of sedition. Amnesty International believes their detention and sentence constitutes a disproportionate restriction on his rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, and urges Spain to free them. 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. The investigation was assigned to the trial court number 13 of Barcelona, which had a conservative judge, Ramírez Sunyer, close to the General Council of the Judiciary. According to the defense, the assignment was against the rules and was done arbitrarily to get a hard anti-independence judge to investigate the case.