Jailed leaders go on hunger strike

Some of the Catalan pro-independence leaders in pre-trial detention will go on hunger strike to protest against the oral hearings due to start in early 2019.

Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Turull announced to the prison authorities on Saturday, December 1 that they were on "indefinite hunger strike" to protest against the Spanish Constitutional Court "blocking" their cases reaching the European justice. 

Why they claim Spain 'blocks' case reaching European courts

Sànchez and Turull claim that the Spanish Constitutional Court "prevents" them from taking their cases to the international justice.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) only accepts for consideration cases which have gone through the whole national judicial path.

And in the pro-independence officials’ case, the highest court in Spain, the Constitutional Court, has accepted eight jailed leaders’ appeals for consideration, but has not taken a final decision on any. Until it does not have a final say on them, the prosecuted individuals will not be able to take their cases to the ECHR.

This comes as the first photo of the seven male jailed leaders while in Lledoners prison, was published by the pro-independence organization Òmnium Cultural on Friday night.

Smiling and relaxed faces

It was taken in one of the courtyards of the penitentiary center, and the seven officials are wearing comfortable clothes and have smiling and relaxed faces.

Four of them have been incarcerated for 13 months, so they had not been seen by the public for over year –the three remaining are behind bars from March 2018, apart from having spent a month incarcerated last autumn.