Catalan leaders ask to be released after Strasbourg ruling on jailed Kurdish MP

Jailed Catalan leaders have asked Spain for release following a recent ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which ordered Turkey to end the pre-trial detention of a Kurdish politician.

Jordi Sànchez, Josep Rull, and Jordi Turull, in prison for their role in Catalonia’s push for independence, urged the Constitutional Court (TC) to consider the similarities of their case with that of Selahattin Demirtaş, the former co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).

Demirtaş spent two years in pre-trial jail for a speech he gave in 2013. Last September, he was convicted of terrorism charges and sentenced to serve more than four years in prison. He remains to be tried for further terrorism accusations.

The Strasbourg-based court called on Turkey to take "all necessary measures" to put an end to Demirtas’ pre-trial detention.