Eight former Catalan cabinet members in custody awaiting trial are due to appear before the supreme court in Madrid after requesting their release before a regional election in the wake of a disputed independence referendum.
A supreme court judge began questioning separatist leaders on Friday after they requested the court appearance to pledge lawful behaviour and renounce unilateral independence efforts in the hope of being released.
The sacked regional vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, one of his ERC party’s main candidates for the election, has asked to be allowed to leave jail in order to campaign in the vote on 21 December, which was called by Madrid.
Junqueras and seven other former members of the Catalonia regional cabinet were jailed on 2 November pending trial on charges of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of funds after the Catalan government declared independence from Spain.
Any release on bail would mark a turn in the election campaign, particularly for separatist parties who have repeatedly accused Madrid of state repression and taking political prisoners after their attempt to declare unilateral independence failed.
“State repression is the mobilising element of the independence movement right now,” said Oriol Bartomeus, politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. “Once they no longer have political prisoners, they will have to change their campaign.”
Junqueras was the first to be questioned by Judge Pablo Llarena of the supreme court – a meeting that lasted just 20 minutes, according to a court source. Seven other former regional ministers and the leaders of two pro-independence civic associations were also due to appear before the judge.
Until last week, Spain’s national court, which takes on major criminal cases, had been in charge of the case against the eight former cabinet members.
Llarena of the supreme court decided that other members of Catalonia’s parliament being investigated in a separate inquiry on similar charges could remain free on bail while the investigation continues. Now he has taken on the investigation of the other eight separatist leaders, they hope he will make the same decision for them.
The jailing of separatist leaders has caused outrage in Catalonia, where pro-independence supporters have organised rallies and wear yellow ribbons as a sign of solidarity.
On Friday, Catalonia’s deposed president, Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after the independence declaration, said he wanted them “home”.
“You should get out of prison because you never should have gone there. Do whatever you need to get out,” he tweeted.
Puigdemont and several other former regional ministers have remained in Belgium, where they await possible extradition to Spain.
Despite facing charges that could carry up to 30 years in jail, Puigdemont, Junqueras and the majority of the Catalan government that was sacked by the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, after the independence declaration will take part in regional elections.
After the failure of the declaration of independence, they have not clarified how they will proceed if they win the election again, as they did in September 2015 as part of a coalition.
The release of the separatist leaders could also revive tensions within the separatist bloc, particularly between Puigdemont and Junqueras – from a conservative and leftwing party respectively.
Puigdemont’s PDeCAT party and Junqueras’s ERC will not join forces as part of a coalition, as they did in 2015. They are standing separately and competing to lead the independence movement.
“They are forcing independence supporters to choose between a jailed martyr vice-president or a president in exile,” said Gabriel Colome, a politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
ERC is favourite to win the elections later this month, according to opinion polls, which also predict separatist and anti-independence parties will be neck-and-neck.