Constitutional Court greenlights leader's preventive detention but without unanimity

Spain's Constitutional Court has rejected jailed leader Oriol Junqueras' appeal against his preventive detention, from November 2017 to October 2019, before he was convicted to a 13-year prison sentence.

The top judges gave their go ahead to the provisional jailing, but lost their usual unanimity.

For the first time when facing a Catalan independence crisis-related issue, discrepancies arose, with three judges voting against the decision taken by the majority of the magistrates.

In any case, Spain's Constitutional Court believes that the Supreme Court's decision to provisionally jail Catalonia's former vice president was lawful.

Junqueras' appeal was presented in January 2018, with the judges taking their final decision 22 months later, when he is no longer in provisional detention, but serving his conviction.

His defense can now take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, after having completed the whole path in Spain's judicial system.