Updated

A leading Catalan politician is vowing to carry on advocating for Catalan independence from her current base in Switzerland where she is evading a Spanish judicial probe for her role in last year's illegal secession attempt.

Anna Gabriel, the leader of the anti-establishment Catalan CUP party, has told Swiss newspaper Le Temps that the Spanish Supreme Court probe is politically motivated and that she will be more useful to her party in Geneva than "behind bars."

"I will not go to Madrid," she says in remarks published Tuesday. She also adds that she has looked for a country that can protect her rights since she "will not have a fair trial at home."

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has also ignored a court summon and is in Belgium.