Catalan parliament suspends debate

  13 April 2018    Read: 1275
Catalan parliament suspends debate

The Catalan Parliament has suspended a second confidence debate in a separatist candidate after Supreme Court investigating judge Pablo Llarena again refused to release former Catalan National Assembly (ANC) chairman Jordi Sánchez (Together For Catalonia) from jail to attend the debate, The Spain Report reported.

The Speaker, Roger Torrent (ERC, Esquerra) said the Supreme Court had "violated rights" and announced an extraordinary meeting of his Speaker's Committee tomorrow morning to discuss the situation.

In his ruling, Judge Llarena said there was a risk of Mr. Sánchez reoffending if he were allowed to attend the session in the regional chamber, which had been scheduled for Friday morning.

There was a risk "his eventual appointment could orient towards the breaking of constitutional order" anew, the judge wrote, adding it was more important to protect the collective political rights of all citizens in Catalonia.

He said the only new information provided by Mr. Sánchez had been his complaint to the United Nations about his situation and political rights, which the judge rejected as a reason for releasing him, adding that both Spain's Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights allowed for the possibility of suspending someone's political rights.

A UN Special Rapporteur, David Kaye, also issued a statement on April 6 calling on Spain to "refrain from pursuing the criminal charge of rebellion against political figures and protesters in Catalonia" to call a new debate in Mr. Sánchez.


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