Catalan leader cannot leave jail to attend debate, court rules

Spain’s supreme court has ruled that the jailed Catalan independence leader chosen to run for the regional presidency cannot leave prison to attend an investiture debate next week.

Jordi Sànchez, the former head of the influential grassroots organisation Catalan National Assembly (ANC), has been in custody for five months over allegations that he and another civil society group leader used huge demonstrations to try to stop Spanish police officers from following a judge’s orders to halt the unilateral independence referendum held on 1 October last year.

Last week, the deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, announced he was “provisionally” abandoning his attempts to return to office and anointed Sànchez, an MP in his Together for Catalonia party, as his preferred candidate.

On Friday afternoon, a supreme court judge refused an application for Sànchez to be released temporarily to attend Monday’s debate.

The judge, Pablo Llarena, said there was a risk Sànchez could reoffend by seeking to carry on pushing for secession from Spain. He also said that Sànchez’s legal predicament meant his candidacy “would not offer voters the leadership that is now required”.

The ANC responded by tweeting: “Llarena denies @jordialapreso freedom and permission to be invested. When a perversion of justice comes through the door, collective freedom jumps out of the window. Freedom!”

Source: theguardian