Jailed pro-indy leaders demand release after Belgium rejects extradition of former minister

The jailed pro-independence activist Jordi Sànchez has written to the Spanish Constitutional Court demanding that he be released from prison until an appeal he made over ten months ago, to which he is yet to receive a response, is resolved.

In the letter, the former president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) reminded magistrates of the decision last Thursday by the Brussels Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling rejecting Spain's extradition request for former Catalan minister Lluís Puig, citing a risk of violation of basic rights.

Sànchez's lawyer, Jordi Pina, has presented similar letters from jailed pro-independence leaders Jordi Turull and Josep Rull, while Joaquim Forn's representative also intends to do so.

According to Sánchez's defense, the Belgian court's decision shows that the right of prisoners to be tried by an ordinary judge, and not by the Supreme Court, was violated, as also reported by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

In addition, according to the defense, the Belgian judiciary concluded that the right to the presumption of innocence was violated.

Therefore, he says, the Constitutional Court now has the opportunity to resolve the "serious violations of fundamental rights" suffered by those convicted following the 2017 independence push.