Judge’s reasons to deny permission to jailed leader ‘grotesque’

An association of around 50 law professors of Catalan universities branded the reasons behind the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday over a jailed pro-independence leader as “grotesque.” The Col·lectiu Praga, set up in 2013 to promote Catalonia’s right to self-determination and made up of academic lawyers, criticized this way the judge’s decree denying permission for incarcerated leader and MP Jordi Sànchez to attend the Catalan chamber in order to be sworn in as president of the country.

In a series of tweets published on Saturday, the association accused the court of creating a “false story” around the independence case. Indeed, according to Col·lectiu Praga, the latest judge’s decree blames Sànchez for the Spanish police violence on the referendum day because he encouraged citizens to vote. For the academic lawyers, this is a “tale,” but they claim that in Strasbourg, seat of the European Court of Human Rights, they will respond to the Supreme Court with “another tale.”

Puigdemont's view

The Col·lectiu Praga was not the only one to react to the judge’s decision on Saturday. The deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, rejected it in a party meeting via video. “What’s the point in holding an election when a judge has more power than 2 million Catalans,” he asked. He urged the EU for a “political response” after the veto to Sànchez’s election as president. Indeed, his three deposed ministers in Brussels think that the European courts will “corner” the Spanish justice.