Two jailed Catalan separatist leaders granted temporary release

Two of the nine Catalan separatist leaders jailed in Spain last year over a failed 2017 independence bid will soon be granted a 48-hour release from prison, the pro-independence regional government said Wednesday.

Spain’s Supreme Court in October sentenced Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart to nine years each behind bars after convicting them of sedition over their role in organising a banned secession referendum in October 2017 which was followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.

Seven other Catalan leaders also received prison terms, sparking days of protests in Barcelona and other Catalan cities which sometimes turned violent, with demonstrators setting cars on fire and throwing petrol bombs at police.

Since Sanchez and Cuixart have been remanded in custody since October 16, 2017, they qualified to apply for temporary release since they have already served a quarter of their sentence.

A spokeswoman for the Catalan regional government’s justice department said their demand had “received a favourable response” without specifying when they will leave jail in order to protect their private life.

According to the law they have the right to 36 days of leave from jail per year, she said. Temporary releases from jail of 48 hours do not need to be authorised by a judge, she added.

Sanchez was the former head of pro-independence civic group the Catalan National Assembly while Cuixart is still the president of Omnium Cultural, another powerful grassroots separatist organisation. The two organisations have in recent years staged mass pro-independence rallies.

The Supreme Court convicted them of sedition for having called a heated protest in September 2017 which prevented police from searching a regional government building for information about preparations for a planned independence referendum, which was held on October 1, 2017 despite a court ban.