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European Parliament no longer recognises Catalan pro-independence MEP
BRUSSELS, Jan 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The European Parliament on Friday said jailed Catalan pro-independence leader Oriol Junqueras was no longer an EU deputy, denying him the parliamentary immunity his supporters hoped would see him freed from prison.
The term of office of Junqueras, who was elected in European elections in May, “ended with effect from January 3, 2020” after a decision by the Spanish electoral commission that was backed by a top court, European Parliament President David Sassoli said in a statement.
Junqueras had written to Sassoli on Friday to ask him to back his release from prison that would allow him to take up his own seat.
The letter urged the parliament not to declare Junqueras’s seat vacant simply because he has begun a 13-year sentence for his part in a banned 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia.
His plea came after the EU’s European Court of Justice last month ruled that exiled Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, living in exile in Belgium, could enjoy immunity from prosecution since he was elected an MEP in May.
By extension, pro-Catalan supporters had hoped the ruling would apply to Junqueras, who was elected despite being in pre-trial detention. He has since been convicted of sedition and begun his jail term.
But on Thursday, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that Junqueras’s conviction “implies the suspension of his status as a European parliamentarian”.
On Friday, a Supreme Court judge said that Spain would retain its European arrest warrants issued for Puigdemont and another Catalan MEP, Toni Comin.
Comin and Puigdemont have received credentials for the European Parliament and plan to attend its plenary session in Strasbourg next week, despite Spain’s extradition demand.
BSS/AFP/MRU/0011hrs