Five Catalan political leaders who are on trial for rebellion are scheduled to attend the Spanish parliament on Tuesday for the inauguration of the new legislature, amid uncertainty over whether they will be allowed to take part in parliamentary activity.

Oriol Junqueras, Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Jordi Sànchez won seats in Congress in last month’s general election, despite being in jail and on trial in the supreme court. Fellow pro-independence politician Raül Romeva, who is also behind bars and on trial, was elected to the Senate. All five are due to be escorted from the prison where they are being held in Madrid to attend parliament’s opening session.

On Monday, the trial was suspended as the five men picked up their parliamentary credentials from the upper and lower houses. Their trial is due to resume on Wednesday.

“Today we have been able to leave Soto del Real prison thanks to your votes so that we can collect our credentials,” Mr Junqueras, former vice-president of Catalonia and currently leader of the Catalan Republic Left (ERC), said in a brief video posted on Twitter. “Your votes have freed us.”

Mr Romeva also represents ERC, while Messrs Rull, Turull and Sànchez won seats for Together for Catalonia (JxCat). None of them was allowed to address the media or meet privately with colleagues during their visit, which was closely controlled by police.

JxCat spokeswoman Laura Borràs described the restrictions on the jailed parliamentarians as “scandalous”.

All five are facing charges of violent rebellion and sedition for their alleged roles in Catalonia’s failed bid for independence in 2017, and could face lengthy jail sentences if found guilty. The trial began in February and is expected to end next month, although a verdict is unlikely before the summer.

Macarena Olona, a newly elected member of Congress for the far-right Vox party, which is one of the plaintiffs in the supreme court trial, decried the fact that the jailed Catalan leaders had been allowed to appear in parliament. She described their visit as “a failure of the rule of law that means five criminals have managed to get into public institutions in order to destroy Spain”.

ERC made gains in last month’s election, securing 15 seats in Congress and it could potentially be key in allowing the Socialists of prime minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new government after they emerged as winners but fell short of a majority.

However, although the jailed politicians are allowed to attend today’s session, the ability of the four members of Congress to take part in parliamentary business appears to be in the hands of the lower house’s presiding council.

Both the conservative Popular Party (PP) and the Ciudadanos party have called for the presiding council to prevent the four from being able to take up their seats. If that were to happen and the suspended politicians did not delegate their seats, the change in parliamentary arithmetic could make the securing of a majority marginally easier. </s> Five jailed Catalan politicians were allowed to attend the opening of Spain’s Congress of Deputies opening session in Madrid on May 21. MPs Josep Rull, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull, and Senator Raül Romeva swore to uphold the constitution of Spain. Junqueras qualified the oath by adding, “as a political prisoner and by legal obligation.” The court’s authorities were due to decide whether the men would be suspended from further participation, "according to reports. Credit: Canal Parlamento via Storyful </s> Bernat Armangue, Pool, Reuters | Jailed Catalan separatists Jordi Sanchez and Oriol Junqueras attend the opening session of parliament in Madrid, Spain, on May 21, 2019

Five Catalan separatist leaders who won election to the Spanish parliament last month were temporarily released from jail on Tuesday to be sworn in as lawmakers.

But the five men, who are on trial for their role in an October 2017 Catalonian secession attempt, could see their mandates quickly suspended by the assembly because of their legal situation.

Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sanchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull won seats in the Congress, the lower house of parliament, while Raul Romeva was elected to the Senate, the upper house.

They arrived at the two assemblies from a jail near Madrid for the swearing-in ceremony in police vehicles to applause from their supporters. The ceremony marked the first time the Spanish Parliament has convened since the country’s highly polarised legislative election on April 28.

Like other lawmakers, they will swore to respect the Spanish constitution – the same constitution they are accused of having violated with their push for independence.

Although the Spanish Supreme Court has allowed the five separatist leaders to attend the opening legislative sessions in Madrid, they are likely to be barred from future meetings by the chambers’ governing bodies, due to be elected later on Tuesday.

“They want to silence and marginalise us, and the ballot box has given our voice back,” Junqueras, a former Catalan vice president and the head of leftist Catalan separatist party ERC, told AFP in a written interview from jail.

He is the main protagonist in the trial that opened in February of 12 Catalan leaders accused of rebellion and other charges in connection with a banned independence referendum held on October 1, 2017. The vote was followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.

Junqueras is also standing in European Parliament elections on Sunday.

Since 2017, Catalan separatist parties have presented jailed or exiled leaders, such as former regional president Carles Puigdemont, as election candidates to draw attention to their plight and create pressure for their release.

The sight of the separatist leaders – who sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades with their bid to break Catalonia away from Spain – taking their seats in parliament could inflame passions on both sides of a divided country.

The first job for the presidency councils of both the lower and upper houses of parliament will be to decide whether the Catalan MPs on trial will be suspended from their duties.

The conservative Popular Party (PP) and centre-right Ciudadanos have said they will try to stop the five men from occupying their posts.

“We can’t deny that the situation and the scenario are exceptional but in any case judicial decisions will be respected,” said Meritxell Batet, outgoing minister for territorial policy who is the Socialists’ candidate for speaker of the lower house of parliament.

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists won the most seats in the April 28 general election, but the party is more than fifty seats short of a majority in the 350-seat lower house of parliament.

Boosted by its fierce opposition to Catalan separatism, far-right party Vox won 24 seats and will enter parliament. It’s a first not only for the party, but more generally for the Spanish far right, which has not been represented in the country’s legislature since dictator General Francisco Franco’s death in 1975.

To be sworn in again as prime minister, Sanchez is likely to rely on some parties abstaining from voting.

If the jailed Catalan lawmakers are not allowed to take part in Sanchez’s investiture vote, the threshold to be approved will be lower and he could be sworn in without relying on Catalan separatist parties abstaining. Sanchez has put off negotiations on governing alliances until after the European ballot on Sunday, which also coincides with municipal elections in Spain.

The government might not be formed until as late as July, FRANCE 24's Sarah Morris reported from Madrid.

Sanchez, who in June 2018 took over from Mariano Rajoy, a conservative, as prime minister, has bet on dialogue with Catalonia to ease tensions sparked by the separatist push.

Conservative parties have repeatedly attacked his overtures to the separatists, who still rule Catalonia, and have instead called for the wealthy northeastern region’s autonomy to be suspended.

Catalan separatists, who consider Junqueras and the other 11 leaders on trial in Madrid as “political prisoners”, are sending Sanchez mixed messages.

The ERC separatist party said it is open to dialogue, but insists on holding an independence referendum in Catalonia, which Sanchez steadfastly refuses.

Catalan separatist parties also blocked last week the nomination of the Socialists’ leader in Catalonia, Miquela Aceta, to be the speaker of the Senate.

In response Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who is a Catalan, blasted the separatists’ for their “totalitarian attitude”.

Sanchez then nominated another Catalan to be speaker of the Senate, philosopher Manuel Cruz, as well as a Catalan to be speaker of the lower house, Bate. </s> Five elected Catalan leaders were allowed out of prison for a few hours today, in order to be sworn in at the opening of the Spanish Parliament.

Former Catalan regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, as well as separatists Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Jordi Sànchez won seats during Spain's April 2019 election. Raül Romeva also won a seat in the Senate.

They are currently being held in prison, awaiting trial on rebellion, sedition and embezzlement charges, after the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, which was later declared illegal.

On Monday, the five politicians were escorted to Parliament to collect their official credentials.

Their trial was put on hold, but is expected to resume on Wednesday.

However, despite their election success, there is doubt over whether the politicians will be able to take part in debates.

Under Parliamentary rules, any member placed in temporary detention is automatically suspended.

If the five Catalan separatist leaders are suspended, the majority in Parliament would go from 176 seats to 174, making Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's attempts to form a coalition much easier.

He would be able to reach a sufficient majority without the support of the Catalan parties and the separatist Basque party Bildu. </s> Five Catalan lawmakers who are in jail for their role in 2017's independence referendum took their seats in the national parliament in Madrid on Tuesday.

The Spanish Supreme Court last week granted the new MPs permission to leave prison to complete the required paperwork, El País reported, on the condition that they be guarded by police at all times and returned to prison “as soon as possible.”

Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull of the Junts per Catalunya party (Together for Catalonia) and Oriol Junqueras, the leader of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), were elected to the lower house of parliament in April's national election, and Raül Romeva from the ERC won a seat in the upper house. All are in jail while they face trial for their involvement in the independence push. They face charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds, among other offenses.

Both the opposition Popular Party and Ciudadanos have said they will try to get the separatists suspended from parliament. </s> The lower chamber of Spain's parliament on Friday suspended Oriol Junqueras and three colleagues from their recently gained seats as national lawmakers because they are currently in jail during an ongoing trial in Spain's Supreme Court.

They face up to 25 years in prison for rebellion charges that stem from a banned referendum and an independence declaration made by the separatist-controlled Catalan government in late 2017.

But Junqueras is also running for the European Parliament in elections that take place on Sunday, and polls say that he and his former boss, Carles Puigdemont, who unlike Junqueras fled the country to avoid arrest, have a chance of being elected.

Even so, the Catalan separatists face several legal hurdles to be sworn in as European lawmakers.

"The sole fact that a European lawmaker and a candidate to the presidency of the European Commission is a political prisoner of one of the European Union's member states is a very powerful message in favour of democracy, fundamental rights and freedoms not only in Catalonia but in all Europe," Junqueras told The Associated Press on Friday.

The Spanish government has repeatedly rejected the term "political prisoner" to refer to the prosecuted Catalan separatists, pointing out that they were jailed by independent courts according to legal provisions in the country.

The government also often reiterates that political parties openly advocating for secession are legal in the country, but the only way to achieve independence for a region like northeastern Catalonia is by reforming the country's 1978 constitution, which currently prohibits the secession of a region unless all Spaniards vote on it.

Junqueras spoke via video conference from a jail on the outskirts of Madrid shortly before the widely expected announcement that he would be suspended as a Spanish lawmaker.

Speaker Meritxell Batet announced that the governing body of the Congress of Deputies had ruled for the suspension in line with the country's criminal code, which bans those indicted for rebellion or terrorism-related charges and in preventive custody from holding public office.

The ruling also applies to Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull, with the four belonging to Puigdemont's conservative JxCat party. Spain's Supreme Court granted them permission earlier this week to attend — escorted by police — the opening parliamentary sessions of the new legislative term.

The four politicians as well as Raul Romeva — who won a seat in the Senate — were elected last month in the vote that saw caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist party win the most seats but fall well short of a majority.

Junqueras, the 50-year-old former vice-president of the Catalan regional government, who was previously a European lawmaker between 2009 and 2012, told AP that Friday's suspension in Spain doesn't affect him because he was planning to give up his seat anyway: members of the European Parliament can't hold certain public offices in their home countries.

Junqueras is the lead candidate in the European elections of Ahora Republicans, a coalition of a Catalan and other small regionalist parties in Spain.

Junqueras said he hopes Spain's Supreme Court will allow him to travel to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, for the opening session in July.

"For me, it will be a pleasure to return to the European Parliament," he said, because that would allow him rejoin former colleagues in the bloc's assembly and "explain to them firsthand the deep injustice that innocent people are in prison."

While Junqueras said that if his attempt to become a European lawmaker is blocked he will appeal it in court, Puigdemont faces even greater potential challenges to join him in the continental legislature.

According to an internal report by the European Parliament's legal services that the AP has had access to, Puigdemont would have to return to Spain to be officially included in the list of its elected European lawmakers and thereby face arrest.

Despite the chaos caused by the Brexit referendum in the U.K., Junqueras is not wavering in his belief that the solution to the Catalan question is a regional vote on independence.

Election results and polls indicate that the 7.5 million residents of the Catalonia region are roughly split down the middle by the secession question. </s> The presence of five imprisoned Catalan politicians dominated the opening of the new legislature in Spain yesterday amid tense scenes in parliament.

Four of the Catalan nationalists who won congressional seats in last month’s general election – Oriol Junqueras, Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Jordi Sànchez – have been in preventive custody while on trial in the supreme court along with Raül Romeva, who was elected to the Senate.

All five received permission from the court to attend the inaugural parliamentary session and take their oath of office.

The four jailed congressmen received applause from their own ranks as they entered the debating chamber, while some unionist politicians shouted “Fuera!” (“Get out!”), setting the tone for a lively and at times raucous morning.

Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez greeted Mr Junqueras, the former Catalan vice-president, with a handshake.

He and the other four prisoners face charges of violent rebellion and sedition along with four others for their alleged roles in Catalonia’s failed bid for independence in 2017, and could face lengthy jail sentences if found guilty.

The first action of the new Congress was to choose a new speaker, with the Socialist candidate Meritxell Batet narrowly gaining enough votes to be invested with the support of the leftist Unidas Podemos, Basque nationalists and smaller regional groups – but not Catalan nationalists.

Ms Batet is seen as a potentially significant choice for the post, which wields substantial influence over parliamentary affairs.

A Catalan who was previously minister of territorial affairs, she has a reputation as a moderate unionist whose profile could help the government as it aims to calm tensions between Madrid and her native region.

In her first speech to the chamber in her new role, Ms Batet appealed for Spain’s fragmented Congress to seek consensus. “None of our parties represents Spain exclusively,” she said. “Each one of us is of the people, but we are not the people.”

However, as the members of parliament took their oaths of office, deep divisions were apparent.

In Congress, members of the far-right Vox party stamped on the floor and banged their desks when Catalan and Basque nationalist politicians took their oaths.

Catalan separatist members of parliament used variations of the oath of office to qualify the fact that they were swearing to uphold the Spanish constitution.

In the case of Mr Junqueras, he said he did so “with a republican commitment and due to legal imperative”. In his oath he also referred to himself as a “political prisoner”, drawing protests from the right-wing opposition.

The congressional presiding council is expected to suspend Mr Junqueras and his jailed colleagues in the coming days, meaning they would be stripped of the duties and privileges conferred on them in yesterday’s opening session. </s> Spain's parliament on Friday suspended four Catalan politicians currently on trial at the Supreme Court for their alleged participation separatist referendum back in 2017 from taking their seats in the national parliament.

The speaker of the country's lower chamber, the Congress of Deputies, Socialist Party (PSOE) member Meritxell Batet, told reporters the decision had been made by the speaker's committee following consultations with Parliament and the Supreme Court.

Batet acknowledged that parliament was faced with an "unprecedented" situation and that the committee had acted to safeguard legislative power and guarantee the rights of parliamentarians.

"The speaker's committee of the Congress of Deputies has agreed to automatically suspend from their positions and therefore their rights and duties established in the rules of the chamber the right honorable members Mr. Oriol Junqueras i Vies, Mr. Josep Rull i Andreu, Mr. Jordi Sánchez i Picanyol and Mr. Jordi Turull i Negre," Batet said.

Junqueras, the former regional vice president of Catalonia, who is facing hefty charges of rebellion and sedition, was in the general elections of Apr. 28 elected to represent the party he leads, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), while Rull, Sánchez and Turull, were voted into the Madrid-based national parliament as MPs for Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia, JxCat).

On Tuesday, all four were briefly released from preventative prison in Madrid to take their seats in Parliament in what turned out to be a controversial session peppered with protests from mainstream parties opposed to the decision to include the detainees.

JxCat, the party of self-exiled former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont, also welcomed a new senator, Raül Romeva.

As well as handling the suspension of the Catalan lawmakers, the committee had to analyze what effects removing four MPs from the 350-seat chamber would have on the absolute majority threshold.

Of the nine members of the speaker's committee charged with making a decision on the four Catalan separatist MPs, only two members of the left-wing Unidas Podemos (United We Can, in English) asked for more time.

"We made our disagreement clear, accepting the decision the committee took on a majority basis," Irene Montero, the party's parliamentary spokesperson, told the press.

The conservative Popular Party and Ciudadanos (Citizens, in English) welcomed the decision but lamented the fact the lawmakers had been allowed to take their oaths in the first place.

Ana Pastor, a former speaker who is now a member of the committee for the PP, said 48 hours had been wasted.

JxCat said it would petition for the decision to be re-evaluated.

The lawmakers in question are among the 12 Catalan separatists leaders currently on trial for charges ranging from rebellion and sedition to misuse of public funds related to their alleged activities promoting and facilitating an illegal independence referendum in Catalonia and unilaterally declaring independence back in October 2017.

The Catalan crisis, which had been simmering for years, exploded in 2017 with the events that led up to the Oct. 1 referendum on the prosperous region's secession from the rest of the country, which was deemed unconstitutional by the judiciary.

As a consequence of the disputed vote and the regional government's subsequent unilateral declaration of independence, Madrid triggered a constitutional article that stripped the devolved region from its autonomy, deposed then-Catalan President Puigdemont and called new regional elections.EFE-EPA </s> MADRID: Five jailed Catalan separatist leaders elected to the Spanish parliament last month were temporarily released from prison on Tuesday and escorted by police to the assembly to be sworn in as lawmakers.

The Supreme Court allowed the five men, on trial for their role in Catalonia´s 2017 secession attempt, to leave jail to take up their seats, but they are likely to be quickly suspended because of their legal situation. They won office in an April 28 general election which was won by acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez´s Socialists but without a majority. Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sanchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull won seats in the Congress, the lower house of parliament, while Raul Romeva was elected to the Senate, the upper house.

They were greeted with applause from other members of their parties when they arrived.

Like other lawmakers they swore to respect the Spanish constitution -- the same constitution they are accused of having violated with their independence push. Romeva vowed to respect the constitution "as a political prisoner, until the proclamation of the Catalan Republic" as he took his seat in the Senate.
The Catalan leaders who are imprisoned accused of rebellion, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Jordi Sànchez and Josep Rull, are sworn in as members of the Congress of Deputies after being elected in the 28th April general election by an authorization of the Supreme Court.