Image copyright AFP Image caption Jordi Sanchez was jailed on sedition charges after October's independence referendum

Jailed Catalan activist Jordi Sanchez has dropped his bid to lead the region's government, paving the way for separatist parties to offer a new name.

The move comes after Spain's Supreme Court rejected his request to be freed to attend an investiture ceremony.

Mr Sanchez, 53, is being held on sedition charges following October's independence referendum, which was ruled illegal by the Spanish courts.

Separatist parties won a slim majority in regional elections in December.

The central government called that vote when it sacked the regional administration and imposed direct rule after the Catalan leaders at the time declared independence.

Mr Sanchez, the former leader of the pro-independence movement Catalan National Assembly, was nominated by separatist parties after the former regional president, Carles Puigdemont, abandoned his attempts to be reappointed.

Announcing Mr Sanchez's decision, Catalan parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent said he faced "repeated violation of his fundamental rights".

Mr Torrent said he would start talks to find a new candidate to lead the government.

One possible name is former Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull, who is also under investigation over his role in the independence movement.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Jordi Turull could be presented as the next candidate for Catalonia's government

Twenty-eight Catalan politicians are being investigated by a Supreme Court judge for their role in the banned referendum and subsequent declaration of independence.

Mr Sanchez and three others remain in jail: former Catalan Vice-President Oriol Junqueras, ex-Interior Minister Joaquim Forn and grassroots separatist leader Jordi Cuixart.

Meanwhile, Mr Puigdemont remains in Belgium, fearing arrest if he returns.

This is Spain's biggest political crisis since democracy was restored to the country in 1975. </s> Catalan's former leader, Carles Puigdemont, has been charged with rebellion for his attempt to declare independence from Spain.

Thirteen separatist politicians from the region have also been charged with the same and could face up to 30 years in prison under Spanish laws.

Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena issued the indictment on Friday, wrapping up a four-month long investigation into the events last autumn.

Catalan could face another regional election in two months after the separatist majority in its parliament failed to elect a president.

Puigdemont is currently living in self-imposed exile in Belgium and says the Spanish government has violated his rights to political freedom.

He faces arrest if he re-enters Spain.

Also charged with rebellion are Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, former Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell, separatist activists Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart and ERC party leader Marta Rovira, who on Friday announced that she was fleeing Spain. </s> BARCELONA, Spain — The Latest on Catalan independence activists (all times local):

A lawyer representing former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and five other Catalan politicians who have been charged in Spain for violent rebellion has appealed to the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee to help defend their democratic rights.

Nico Krisch denounced a “grave interference in the democratic order” linked to the charges against Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium, as well as Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull. The five are being held in pre-trial detention in Spain.

The Catalan politicians have been charged and suspended from office by Spain’s Supreme Court for their roles in organizing an independence referendum in Catalonia 14 months ago.

The effort announced Thursday seeks the Geneva-based committee’s intervention to help ensure their democratic right to exercise their parliamentary mandate.

A spokeswoman for four jailed Catalan separatist leaders says they are abandoning their hunger strike more than two weeks after starting it because they consider that their protest has achieved its goals.

Speaking on behalf of the politicians, who are awaiting trial for their part in last year’s attempt to secede from Spain, Pilar Calvo said Thursday the strike has drawn attention to the separatists’ plight and prompted Spain’s constitutional Court to review some of their appeals, which enables them to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Pro-independence activist-turned-politician Jordi Sanchez and former Catalan cabinet member Jordi Turull began their hunger strike on Dec. 1. Ex-regional ministers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn joined two days later.

The constitutional Court had said the appeals were following the normal judicial calendar. </s> The Spanish prosecutor’s office demands a 25-year prison sentence for the leader of the pro-independence Catalan party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ErC), Oriol Junqueras, for a challenge to the central government that resulted in the unilateral declaration of independence on October 27, 2017. Junqueras is charged with the Medieval crime of “rebellion”.

After a year of investigations, the prosecutor presented the request for sentences, ranging from 25 years for former Catalan vice president to 16 for five former “advisors”: Jordi Turull, Raul Romeva, Joaquim Forn, Dolors Bassa and Josep Rull.

For the leaders of Omnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, the prosecution requests 17 years in jail and a 17-year ban on holding public office, similar punishment is proposed for the former Catalan Parliament Speaker Carme Forcadell.

All are charged with “rebellion“, a crime that carries a 30-year maximum sentence. For the three advisers who are not in detention – Carles Mundó, Maritxell Borrás and Santiago Vila – the requested sentence is limited to 7 years, since they are accused only of embezzlement. </s> Four imprisoned Catalan politicians awaiting trial after a failed secessionist bid on Thursday decided to give up a hunger strike protest after nearly three weeks, according to their spokesperson.

Former regional ministers Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, as well as the president of the separatist civil association Catalan National Assembly (ANC) Jordi Sánchez, are currently in pre-trial detention on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds for their role in organizing a referendum on the prosperous northeastern Spanish region's independence from the rest of the country that was deemed unconstitutional by the judiciary. </s> Madrid, March 22 (IANS) Jordi Sanchez on Wednesday officially renounced his candidacy to be the next leader of Spain’s Catalan region.

Sanchez, the leader of the separatist Catalan National Assembly and second in command in the Junts per Cat (JperC) electoral lists behind Carles Puigdemont in the December vote, has spent almost five months in jail outside of Madrid awaiting trial on charges of sedition.

Those charges relate to a pro-Catalan independence protest in Barcelona on September 20 last year and if found guilty he faces a prison sentence of 15 years, reports Xinhua.

Former Catalan leader Puigdemont withdrew his candidacy from his self-imposed exile in Belgium in order to avoid charges of sedition and rebellion levelled against him. Sanchez was chosen as his replacement.

Sanchez is reported to have told a judge in a court appearance on Monday in which he again requested bail that he was willing to renounce both his candidacy and his seat in the Catalan parliament in order for this to happen.

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent said after Sanchez renounced his candidacy, that the decision was “the best service” he (Sanchez) could perform and an “act of generosity”.

Torrent announced the start of a third round of talks to try and form a government with former Catalan regional government spokesman Jordi Turull, a member of Puigdemont’s JperC party, who is expected to be named as the new candidate.

Turull is currently out of prison on bail as he too awaits trial on charges related to the Catalan independence process. He too could be banned from holding office in the near future. </s> MADRID: Two jailed Catalan separatist leaders awaiting trial in a Spanish jail over their role in last year’s failed independence bid began a hunger strike on Saturday, their lawyer said.

Jordi Sanchez, the former head of the influential grassroots ANC independence movement, and Jordi Turull, a former minister in the Catalan regional government, are taking this step to “raise awareness” of their unfair treatment by Spain’s justice system, lawyer Jordi Pina told a news conference in Barcelona.

“I did not recommend this action, it is a decision of my clients and they have my full support,” he added.

In a statement read by Pina, the two men accused Spain’s Constitutional Court of blocking their appeals against their imprisonment from reaching the European Court of Human Rights. Pina said he did not know if the five other Catalan separatist leaders jailed in the Lledoners penitentiary located some 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of Barcelona would later join the hunger strike.

Spain’s Supreme Court in October ordered a total of 18 former Catalan separatist leaders to stand trial over last year’s declaration of independence.

Prosecutors are seeking jail terms of up to 25 years on charges of rebellion or misuse of public funds over the failed secession bid. The sensitive trial is expected to start in early 2019 and will focus on the attempt by Catalan leaders to break away from Spain in October 2017 by staging a referendum despite a court ban and subsequently proclaiming independence.

Nine of the separatists remain in pre-trial detention, including the seven at the Lledoners prison who have been in jail for the last eight to 13 months without trial.

The announcement of the hunger strike comes a day after the first photo of the seven jailed Catalan leaders at the Lledoners prison was released by grassroots pro-independence organisation Omnium Cultural.

The picture — which was splashed on the cover of Catalan newspapers on Saturday — shows the seven men smiling and wearing casual clothes in one of the courtyards of the prison.

Omnium Cultural said it released the picture to send a message of “unity” ahead of the start of their trial.

In a statement, Catalan regional president Quim Torra expressed his “solidarity” with the two prisoners who began a hunger strike.

“This dramatic and drastic measure is being taken because of what we find to be the complete violation of citizens’ rights, civil and political rights, and of respect for the legal process. It’s my personal view that penal law is being used for vengeance,” he added. </s> Four of the Catalan leaders facing trial over last year’s failed push for regional independence have gone on a hunger strike, claiming they are being treated unfairly by the Spanish justice system.

On Saturday, Jordi Sànchez, the former head of the powerful grassroots group Catalan National Assembly, and Jordi Turull, a former Catalan government spokesman, announced that they were embarking on the strike at Lledoners prison.

The pair accuse Spain’s constitutional court of deliberately blocking their numerous appeals to prevent their cases progressing to the European Court of Human Rights.

“We ask for an impartial and diligent constitutional court, which should not impede the exercise of our rights,” they said in a statement. “We do not ask the constitutional court for any special treatment. But we do not passively accept any discrimination or unwarranted procrastination.”

On Monday two other imprisoned Catalan leaders – former infrastructure minister Josep Rull and ex-interior minister Joaquim Forn – said they were joining the hunger strike to protest against the constitutional court’s “unjust and arbitrary behaviour”.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said that while the hunger strike “was obviously not good news”, the imprisoned leaders were being treated in accordance with the law.

“I think it is important to stress that they will have a fair trial because we live in a society based on the rule of law and the judiciary is independent,” he said over the weekend.

However the Catalan president, Quim Torra, has described the Spanish judicial system’s treatment of the prisoners as “one of the worst outrages seen in Europe” in recent years.

“This dramatic and drastic measure being taken is because of what we find to be the complete violation of citizens’ rights, civil and political rights, and of respect for the legal processes of the Spanish state itself,” he said.

“It’s my view that penal law is being used for vengeance, establishing a makeshift legality in order to attack political dissidence.

Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, the head of the Omnium cultural group, have been in pre-trial detention since October 2017, while the former Catalan vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, has been in custody for more than a year.

The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who led efforts to secede from Spain, fled the country and is now in Belgium.

At the beginning of November, the attorney general of Spain’s supreme court charged Junqueras and eight ministers and senior officials with rebellion, demanding a 25-year sentence for the former vice-president and up to 17 years for the others.

Tensions in Catalonia are likely to rise again early next year when the trials begin. – Guardian </s> Spanish prosecutors have called for prison sentences of up to 25 years for those accused of leading last year’s failed Catalan independence bid, amid opposition claims that the government has tried to influence the judiciary.

The attorney general said the supreme court should try former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, six other politicians and two rank-and-file leaders for rebellion for their role in an outlawed referendum held in October 2017, which was followed by a declaration of independence.

Mr Junqueras, who has been in jail since, faces a possible 25-year prison sentence and could be barred from public office for up to 25 years if found guilty. He is also accused of misuse of public funds. Former Catalan parliamentary speaker Carme Forcadell and rank-and-file leaders Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, who are all accused of rebellion and are also in custody, could face jail sentences of up to 17 years.

Five former ministers in the Catalan government face jail terms of up to 16 years for rebellion and misuse of public funds, while another nine defendants face lesser charges.

Meanwhile, former Catalan police chief Josep Lluís Trapero, who will be tried separately along with three others by the high court, could face a jail sentence of up to 11 years if found guilty of rebellion.

However, there was controversy when equivalent charges presented by the state lawyer’s office, which works in conjunction with the justice ministry, were noticeably more lenient. The state lawyer did not call for any of the defendants to be tried for the most serious charge of rebellion, asking for a 12-year sentence for Mr Junqueras for sedition and misuse of public funds.

The rebellion charge is particularly controversial as it implies that violence or the threat of it was used, something the independence movement insists was not the case.

Nonetheless, the state lawyer’s position drew an angry response from the Catalan government. The region’s president, Quim Torra, said that Madrid had “missed an opportunity to take the judicial dimension out of a conflict that is political”.

Meanwhile, unionist opposition parties claim that Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez has been pressuring the judiciary to soften its case against the independence leaders because he needs the parliamentary support of Catalan nationalists. The state lawyer’s refusal to use the rebellion charge therefore drew strong criticism.

Pablo Casado, leader of the conservative Popular Party, tweeted that it was “indecent that the government humiliates Spain by forcing the state lawyer to distance itself from the attorney general and not accuse the coup-mongers of rebellion”.

Justice minister Dolores Delgado denied that the government had influenced the position of the state lawyer’s office, which, she said, was based on “technical, professional and judicial criteria”.

The trial is expected to begin early next year.

Several others accused of involvement in last year’s referendum who are not in the country, such as former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, are not facing charges because they cannot be tried in their absence.
Catalan activist Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol, imprisoned accused of sedition, drops his bid to lead the Catalan government.