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| Catalonia's ousted vice-president Oriol Junqueras denied bail | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Spain’s supreme court has refused to grant bail to the ousted Catalan vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, who has been in prison for more than two months over his role in the region’s unilateral push for independence. | |
| On Friday afternoon, three judges ruled that Junqueras would remain in custody on the grounds that he could seek to carry on with the secessionist struggle if released. | |
| In a written ruling, they also said there were indications to suggest he had committed the offences on suspicion of which he is being held: sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. | |
| Junqueras had told the court on Thursday that he would obey the law if released, but the judges said there was a risk he would “reoffend as there is no sign that the defendant has any intention of abandoning the route he has followed until now”. They also flatly rejected claims that Junqueras, who has been in prison since 2 November, was a “political prisoner”. | |
| The ruling means that Junqueras is likely to miss the inaugural session of the new Catalan parliament on 17 January. His lawyer, Andreu Van den Eynde, said his client has asked the court to free him so that he could “represent the people who voted for him”, rejoin his family and work to find a solution to the current political crisis. | |
| The decision was swiftly condemned by the deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium shortly after October’s unilateral independence declaration. | |
| Puigdemont said that last month’s snap election - called by the Madrid government after it assumed control of Catalonia and sacked the regional government - had shown that Catalans wanted a pro-independence government. | |
| Although the unionist, centre right Citizens won the most seats, pro-independence parties, including the ERC and Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia party - held on to their majority. | |
| “There is a conflict to be resolved between Catalonia and Spain,” Puigdemont tweeted on Friday afternoon. “We have always opted for the peaceful path and for dialogue.” | |
| He added that Junqueras and the three other Catalan independence leaders still in jail were “no longer political prisoners; they are hostages”. | |
| It remains unclear what will happen when the regional parliament meets in less than two weeks’ time. Puigdemont hopes to be sworn in as president for another term, but to do so he will have to return to Spain, where he faces immediate arrest. | |
| Junqueras’s supporters had hoped that he could become president if Puigdemont remained in Brussels, but the suggestion has been shot down by the latter’s party. | |
| “There’s only one plan: restoring President Puigdemont and the legitimate government,” Together for Catalonia said on Thursday, adding that any other plan would act as an endorsement of the “coup d’etat” perpetrated by the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. | |
| Spain has been in the throes of the separatist crisis since 1 October, when Puigdemont’s government staged a unilateral independence referendum that was marred by violence as Spanish police officers sought to stop the vote. | |
| Almost a month later, the regional parliament declared independence from Spain, prompting Rajoy to step in and use article 155 of the constitution to sack the Catalan government and call fresh elections. |