Jose Manuel Maza said in a statement that prosecutors had filed a request at the National Court for the charges, which also include sedition and embezzlement.

A court now has to decide whether to accept the charges against the leaders, who were dismissed by the Madrid government on Friday.

The crime of rebellion is punishable in Spain by up to 30 years in prison.

The dispute over Catalan leaders’ independence drive has dragged Spain into its deepest political crisis in decades.

Catalonia’s now-dismissed regional president Carles Puigdemont said the result of an outlawed independence referendum on October 1 gave the region a mandate to declare independence.

Madrid and the Spanish courts said the referendum was illegal and that an unilateral independence declaration would violate the constitution.

Maza said in a ruling that the filing targeted “the principal political leaders of the Catalonia government”.

It alleged that the leaders “with their decisions and deeds over the past two years have caused an institutional crisis that led to the unilateral declaration of independence carried out on October 27 with total contempt for our constitution”. DM