Catalonia’s parliament speaker suspended

BARCELONA: The speaker of Catalonia’s parliament was suspended on Thursday, two days after a court in the northeastern region of Spain ordered the hardline separatist to stand trial for graft.

The decision by the assembly’s governing table to temporarily suspend Laura Borras as both speaker and a lawmaker in the Catalan parliament has fuelled tensions in coalition which governs the region.

It was backed by all the parties with representation on the table, except for her "Together for Catalonia" (JxC) party. Borras is accused of awarding contracts worth around 300,000 euros ($295,000) to a colleague when she headed the Catalan Institute of Letters, a regional body charged with promoting Catalan language and literature.