Three Catalan political prisoners ask for immediate release following Belgian sentence

Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull have asked the Spanish Constitutional Court to suspend the sentence of the Supreme Court that condemned them and to order their immediate release following the sentence of the Belgian judiciary that denied extradition to Spain of deposed minister Lluís Puig. As argued by the defense, a Brussels court confirmed that the Spanish Supreme Court was not the competent court to try the case. “This is one of the most serious procedural violations there can be” says lawyer Jordi Pina.

The Belgian judiciary determined that by handing over Puig there would be a high risk of violation of the right to the presumption of innocence. Therefore, the defense of the three Catalan political prisoners asks the Constitutional Court to amend “such serious violations of fundamental rights, both the right of a judge predetermined by law and the right to the presumption of innocence, which Sànchez, Turull and Rull have already suffered”.

The defense also blames the Spanish judiciary for the constant leaks that have taken place during the trial in the Supreme Court first, and then in the Constitutional Court. According to the writ, these leaks have contaminated the decisions that the magistrates have been taking based on previous information.

All in all, the defense demands the “immediate release” of Sànchez, Rull and Turull. The magistrates have previously denied equal requests, but the defense understands that now the decision of the Belgian court on Lluís Puig “has a full impact on several of the reasons for the defense’s lawsuit filed in March 2020.”