Catalan cops to stop vote if ordered: security chief

Catalan interior chief Ramón Espadaler, a leading member of the government led by breakaway president Artur Mas, has said that the region’s Mossos d’Esquadra police force would have to obey orders and prevent the vote on Catalonia’s independence from Spain, scheduled to take place on Sunday.

The newspaper El País quoted Espadaler as saying that such an order is a “remote hypothesis” before adding: “The Mossos will listen to what the judge and prosecutors tell them to do.”

“There is no discretionary scope for a police force. If there is (an order), it will have to be obeyed and the Catalan Interior Department will do nothing to stop it,” the official said, while expressing his wish that calm will be maintained .... http://www.thelocal.es