‘We don’t want to put our lives at risk,’ says jailed leader on hunger strike

Jordi Sànchez, one of the two jailed pro-independence leaders who began a hunger strike on Saturday, has ruled out endangering their lives in the protest action.

"We don’t want to put our lives at risk, we’re not fools," said Sànchez in an interview with El Nacional.

Sànchez and Jordi Turull began the strike as a way to protest against a delay by Spain’s Constitutional Court in the handling of their appeals, which they say virtually prevents them from bringing their cases to international courts.

"We need an impartial and diligent Constitutional Court, one that doesn’t undermine our rights," said Sànchez and Turull in a joint statement published in the vagadefam.cat website. "We denounce a de facto blocking that prevents us from appealing in the European Court of Human Rights."